


Under Disguises

by SpacedOutDude



Series: Where Were You When I Needed To Hear You Say [1]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal?, Emotional spiral, Everyone Needs A Hug, Gen, M/M, Mild villain varian, Multiple Endings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Varian Needs a Hug (Disney), Varian in prison woo, but also really gay for varian, but you know what power does to people, each one will most likely end in another fic, get pumped for the end ;), here we go bois, hope y'all like slowburns, hugo freaks the fuck out, hugo is a mild gay disaster, hugo's a good boy, multiple POVs, not quite varigo but almost, rapunzel isn't good at making varian feel better, the guards are mean, they're not too bad, varian gets intrusive thoughts :(, varian is sad :(, varigo's starting now lmao, whump?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25383778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpacedOutDude/pseuds/SpacedOutDude
Summary: Varian must pay for the crimes he's commited - sure, jail was expected, but this? This is just cruel.Hugo still has to squirm his way onto Donella's good side, and secure it there - even if that means taking the lame, boring jobs that are only there for the information.*This takes place during season 2, starts in the imaginary week before Rapunzel leaves for her trip*This is heavily inspired by the amazing fic "Consequences" by @An_ah on AO3, so go check that out! https://archiveofourown.org/works/20656022/chapters/49103246I'm also posting this to tumblr on the account @fic-foncs!
Relationships: Hugo & Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms), Hugo/Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms), Rapunzel & Varian (Disney), varigo
Series: Where Were You When I Needed To Hear You Say [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1868602
Comments: 56
Kudos: 168





	1. Rumors & Truths

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first ever legit fanfic, and I haven't written anything in awhile, so if you have any suggestions, criticisms, or critiques, please share them, but don't be too mean please ( ☆ ~ ☆) There's no upload schedule yet, but I have the first couple chapters written now.  
> -WARNINGS- light swearing, machine-robot gore?

This certainly wasn’t a mission Hugo was exactly looking forward to, but at least it was something where he finally got free range over it. It was a simple idea, maybe a little long in process, but an easy and stealthy way to get the information that Donella needed. Hugo was to join the Coronanian Guard as a trainee, find out where they hid their valuables and other good stuff, sneak out, report back, and get his reward for a job well done. Hugo hoped it would only take a couple of weeks, maybe a month. After all, for a kingdom that so heavily cracks down on crime, their guard isn’t known for being the best or even most competent. _Simple. In and out of this godforsaken place as fast as he could._ Hugo thought to himself as he journeyed to the dreaded sunlight kingdom.

~-~-~

Either Don had planned something to make Hugo’s infiltration a lot smoother, or both her and Hugo were extremely lucky. From the small towns he passed by on his trip, he heard of this villain that had attacked Corona, practically wiped out the entire guard, and managed to even capture the entire Royal Family. _The perfect time to waltz in and say that I’m a guard trainee, no need to check anything, I’m sure you all need help._ Hugo ~~hoped~~ thought to himself. He tried to talk to some of the gossipers, but it seemed that everything that was going on was under wraps. “I heard that they were embarrassed by how badly they failed, they haven’t told any details.” One said. “I heard that The King was hiding something that might have caused it, so no one wants to talk about it.” _Bingo. The King hiding something that caused someone to attack? His mentor would thoroughly enjoy this._

The sunlight kingdom always seemed too perfect. A daughter that was kidnapped, miraculously turned back, no harm done to her? A strict king that made sure the kingdom was safe? The only really terrible things to happen to them were resolved with a ‘happily ever after’. Hugo scoffed at the idea.

  
Donella must have had someone do some work on the inside for her, as all Hugo had to do to become an official ‘rookie’ guard was tell them his name. Even though no one had any recollection of him, his records were sorted out that he had passed the test and was ready to start ‘on-the-job’ training. Hugo just had to act like he was very offended when none of the guards remembered him, which surprisingly worked. _By the maker, how was this kingdom still standing? The guards were ham-fisted and way too trusting._ But at least it was something Hugo could abuse. As it turned out, they also were completely desperate for any assistance in their numbers, as even the captain himself was down for the count after a bad hit. They welcomed him on board, no questions asked.

~-~-~

With a guard uniform and a place in their quarters, Hugo got to start his first day. He was eager to start, as this job ~~should~~ would be so very easy. He decided to wander around, see if he could find anything, and if anyone asked he could simply reply, _oh, I’m the new guard, I must be lost._ He let his feet guide him as he looked at the walls, trying to memorize every hallway, making escape routes in his head. His feet managed to lead him to a part of the guard quarters that was a sort of infirmary. He heard muffled voices, which was enough to pique his intrigue.

“Nigel said the hearing will be tomorrow, sir.” The first voice, which belonged to the temporary captain, said. _The other person is probably the captain then, but then who’s Nigel?_

“Where did you put the kid?” The second voice was very strained, evident that Hugo’s guess was right. _Great, throw another unknown character in the mix, thanks._

“He’s in the dungeons, but he went very willingly, so The King isn’t worried that he’ll escape.” The temporary captain said, hesitantly while also trying to be reassuring. _How stupid are these people? What the hell is going on?_

“That doesn’t - agh!!” The captain stopped and cried out in pain. “Just…start the clean-up then.” He finished with a sigh.

“Yes, captain.” Hugo heard footsteps coming towards the door and quickly started walking away towards the rest of the guards. _Who were they talking about? And **clean-up?** By the maker, this is stupid._

~-~-~

“The general goal for today is to clean up the debris and wreckage from our past battle in Old Corona. We still need guards at the castle and more security in the dungeons, but otherwise, you’ll be assigned to go to Old Corona to start.” The temporary captain started assigning the actual guard jobs to the seemingly more skilled guards and instructed the rest to take horses and carts to Old Corona. _Shouldn’t this be someone else’s, no, **anyone** else’s job?_ Hugo wanted to try to oppose the captain, but another part of him wanted to see what had transpired. The more vague details Hugo got, the more interesting he was becoming of this battle. And if he would be stuck with the dopey guards, he could at least ask them about what happened and they wouldn’t suspect a thing.

The trip to Old Corona was boring, just lots of nature. It peeved Hugo that he wasn’t doing anything with his time, but he amused himself in his mind thinking about what he would do and things he could buy when the job was finally finished. _Easy in, easy out._ He kept telling himself.

When they arrived, the village was clearly distressed, and who could blame them? Hugo thought they were pathetic, until he saw the wreckage. Giant black spikes of rock that seemed to glow an eerie blue were piercing through the ground like pins in a pincushion. There was a large house, one that seemed to take the most damage, that stood near the wall blocking Corona out from everyone else. But the center of the wall had been bashed through, and the same black rock-spikes were seemingly laid against the ground creating a path that led out of Corona to the open world.

While a majority of the rock-spikes were leaning the same way as the ones making the path, there were ones that stood tall, with large robots being impaled from all angles. They were a yellow brass color, and they looked like they ran on all fours, similar to that of a gorilla. The head was an oval, with one large ‘eye’ on the left of the robot, a smaller one underneath, and three more to the right of the other two. All the eyes seemed hollow, with no lights or anything to show that they were alive. As someone who was fond of mechanical _things_ , it ran shivers down Hugo’s spine to see these creatures mutilated.

But that wasn’t even the biggest part, there was still the largest robot, a giant, hulking, grey monstrosity that had similar anatomy to the others, but with all of its appendages torn off. The legs of the beast were both speared and seemed to have been dragged off the torso of the creature, along with one of the arms. The other arm was raised as if getting ready to strike but was stopped by a particularly well placed, large spike that stabbed through the ‘hand’ of the beast. Near the head, or the circle you could call the head, was broken glass, lying on the ground. There was dirt and blood around said broken glass, someone must have been close to it or even inside. There also seemed to be the faint smell of sulfur and other chemicals, which greatly confused Hugo as these people did not seem like the type to be into alchemy or science in general. _Holy shit._ Now Hugo needed to know what happened.


	2. Don't Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's hiding something, whether it be horrific science expirements gone wrong, true intentions, or a sea of emotions that would cause a tsunami if disturbed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! As far as an upload schedule right now, I think I'll aim for weekends (mainly Sunday, but I have a very scary test Sunday and I want to make sure I don't forget to post this). Thanks for the support on the last chapter and thanks to @whitecatindisguise on tumblr for telling me how to fix my mistake with the chapters ahaha <3  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, light freak outs, negative emotion spiraling (there's a lot more to come), and some more light robo-gore (truely saddening)

The guards had to work together to try to pry the deadly machines off the spikes and into carts to be dealt with later. Hugo was slowly picking up bits and pieces of what he thought had happened, a simple ambush upon the guard, _for some unknown reason,_ and they just used these odd rocks to their advantage. He tried his best to subtly examine these rock-spikes as he carried pieces of metal to the carts, pocketing some useful chunks. 

Being new and not as sturdily built as the others, Hugo was tasked with dealing with some of the smaller stuff, like the pieces of the now-in-shambles section of the wall, near that ominous castle-house that no one dared to go in. If the goal was to keep people from sneaking inside, the exterior of the house seemed to do the trick. 

There were some of those same black spikes, but inexplicably larger than the others that jolted up and through the house, piercing through all sides, cutting through the walls and roof like it was nothing. The entrance was large, a grand plateau with a larger-than-average gaping hole where the door should've been. All the lights were off in the house, and pieces of the wall, especially where the tower stood, were slowly starting to crumble off. Hugo was positive the guards didn’t pick up on it, but the closer you got to the house, the stronger the smell of chemicals lingered and stayed. 

The house seemed to call to him, inviting him inside. The rocks that lined the path to the house still stood upright, calling him towards them. _It couldn’t hurt to get away from these lunatics, and I mean, what’s the worst they could do to me?_ Hugo thought to himself as he checked around to make sure no one was watching and snuck inside. 

~-~-~

He carefully slid the door open and snuck through, undetected by any of the guards at work. Luckily, there was light outside to illuminate the inside of the house as Hugo ventured through. It seemed like a normal house, with normal rooms, furniture, and memories scattered throughout. There was a large portrait hanging on one wall, one that seemed like a simple family. A broad, large man, his arms wrapped around a petite woman, much smaller than him, who held a smiling, happy baby in her hands. It seemed like a normal family portrait, a little worse for wear, but still a beautiful painting. But the deeper into the house, the more it didn’t seem normal. 

Everything seemed to be out of place, except for the bedrooms and kitchen, which were coated in a small, fine layer of dust. The house was eerie, to say the least. _Yeah, great idea going into this creepy fucking house, Hugo._ He thought to himself, trying to find more clues as to what happened. He followed the smell of chemicals, which led him deeper into the house, papers scattered on the floor, with recipes of concoctions and equations that were all violently scribbled out and ripped up at the edges. Eventually, Hugo came to _the_ room. The one that called him there like a moth to a lamp. 

The room was absolutely wrecked, rocks slicing through the ground and walls, and a giant hulking mass covered by a cloth in the center of the room, surrounded by tables that were made of wood, but shattered like glass. The floor was obviously damaged, from rocks but also something that seemed to come up from inside the house, leaving a gaping hole in the floor, akin to the door-hole, in front of the sheeted mass. Hugo prayed that whatever could’ve been wasn’t still there. 

He wandered around the room, finding more notes with recipes, ingredients, hypotheses, all angrily scribbled out with words like **FAILED** or **STUPID** written on top of them. There were drawings of The Princess and the alleged magic flower that gave her magic powers. Everyone had heard of the sundrop flower, and how it saved The Queen and Princess. A few decayed leaves sat at the singularly non-destroyed table, while there was a fine paste that shone a deep yellow smeared on it, coating some of the papers. 

There were beakers and chemicals and anything else an alchemist could dream of. Hugo thought about taking some of the equipment but figured it might not be worth it if he was haunted. The chair next to the desk was flung to the floor, and only then did Hugo notice the chains attached to the ground next to a window. With closer inspection, it seemed the chains had been cut off by something sharp, and a deep orange substance was growing on some of the black rocks near it. He knocked his hand against the material, and it was odd. It felt the same as the rocks, but there was no way the rocks also formed this. It sounded hollow, but the material was solid. 

With a little more searching he found a sheet of paper that was wrinkly, probably from something wet that had touched it, with notes for an ‘amber solution’, the words on top of what looked like ‘Test 56’. That must have been what that was. He perused through shelves, finding only dorky books on science and alchemy. _Whoever lived here was 1) a big dork, and 2) very messy._ Hugo thought to himself as he found himself in front of the mass covered in a sheet in the direct center of the room. He was fine with the gentle snooping around the room, but this seemed bigger. Physically, of course, but it seemed like there was a _reason_ it was covered up, and who was Hugo to not discover what it was?

~-~-~

Varian ~~never~~ meant to hurt anyone that stood in his path. And he had done so, hadn’t he? So why did it turn out this way? He did everything he had to do. He had completed his plan, but the plan didn’t end with his father _still_ being encased and him being put in jail. He had given in when his plan failed. He realized he could’ve fought, but what did he have? About a week’s worth of sleep when he should have had a month’s? A weak, frail body that threatened to collapse on him after being starved? A mind that was constantly racing at who’s a fault it was, - **_Rapunzel’s_ ** \- when had it all gone wrong, - **_when Rapunzel showed up_ ** \- would he see his father again, - **_no_ ** \- was he a good son, - **_never, his father could never be proud of him_ ** \- what would happen if he failed again, - **_he wouldn’t - but he did_ ** \- so what else could a broken, fragile, beaten boy do when he had nothing left to for him? What would he do if he resisted? He knew the answer was that the punishment would be worse than what it would be if he just gave in. 

He wanted to fight, to run away, to talk to his dad one last time, tell him everything he meant to say to him, to ask him, but he was so tired. The weeks of sleepless days finally caught up, the days where he was so invested in his work he forgot to eat, the days spent crying at his desk, or at his father’s feet. So he gave in. He had nothing left. No energy, no life in or ahead of him. So he gave in. 

He gave them his wrists to cuff, his body for them to carry away. He hadn’t made the Royal Family pay enough, but that was a problem for another day. With more energy, he could cause a ruckus in the dungeons and make them pay, but for now, he was done. Done thinking, done doing, done being. 

Ruddiger had picked up on the boy’s defeat, and had found his way to him and scampered up his arm to rest along his neck. He tried to coo at Varian, to get him to focus on something not as foul as what the future might have in store, but with one look at the boy’s face, he realized he was too late. Varian’s eyes were hollow and dead, nothing but loose thoughts floating around. He was hastily cuffed at the wrists and dragged up by guards, who put him in a prisoner cart. They had tried to get that damned raccoon to leave, but Ruddiger would not leave his boy’s side. Not when he needed him most. Not when everyone else had left him. He hissed at the guards that tried to shoo him away, and they eventually gave up and let the raccoon attempt to comfort the boy. The boy that was now just a shell, an empty husk of the innocent, curious, kind boy he used to be. Ruddiger missed the days of playful alchemy, as he had to live through the dreadful ones which ended in Varian screaming in frustration and crying. What had happened to his boy?

~-~-~

As Varian was whisked away, Rapunzel and her family stood before the wreckage before them. Cassandra and Eugene had come to her, to make sure she was alright, and sure she was physically fine, but what had she just seen? She had seen a perfectly normal boy crumble to dust and see a demented and tortured soul take his place, like a malicious Phoenix. She saw his face, once twisted in anger, rage, and sadness - now hollowed out as if she was staring at death and he at her. What happened to this poor, once innocent boy?

~-~-~

With a dramatic flair, Hugo quickly pulled off the sheet on the mass in the center of the room and automatically wished he hadn’t. There was a **man** embedded inside the amber, his face contorted in pain. He was suspended in the substance, holding a note as high as he could, only for the note to be swallowed up but the hungry amber with him. The dark orange matter curled upwards, spiraling at the tips as if it were trying to touch and break through the ceiling and escape. _What the hell happened here?_ Hugo thought as his mind raced of all the things that could’ve caused this and what things could happen after. Hugo was usually fine with gore, dealing with it often enough. But this was something else. 

Seeing the man trapped in there started to make Hugo feel claustrophobic like something was seeping into his throat, starting to block off his breathing. He started to gasp in shallow breaths, stumbling backward, and catching himself on the wall. He looked towards the ground and steadied his breathing. _By the maker, that’ll haunt my dreams for the next week._ Hugo quickly tried to cover the man in the solution with the sheet again, only to horribly fail. There was a reason as to why the sheet was draped on him. 

Hugo stumbled around the room, shaking, to see if he could find any more clues as to what happened. There was nothing before, and nothing that made any more sense after his discovery. He'd have to ask around to see if anyone knew. He hastily fled the room, making his way through the twisted house, the hallways leading to dead ends, windows that were shattered, everything in chaos. But there was an eye in the center of this storm. A siren’s call, one that was a sweet melody, faintly ticking in the background. Hugo was called to it and followed the music. 

It was eerie, but oh so sweet. It silently echoed throughout the abandoned house, bouncing off the walls in Hugo’s mind. The siren’s call grew louder as he walked to the door leading to his escape. He made sure the coast was clear and snuck out the door, to find that it seemed the rest of the guards were just picking up on the call. They looked so fearful, preparing like soldiers for war. 

The melody continued to grow louder, slowly pounding in Hugo’s chest. He joined up with the guards, _near the back of course_ , and watched in horror as one the robots that had previously been killed found new energy, pulling itself up, and starting to bound towards the group, it’s now lit up eyes that shone a bright emerald green staring at them.

“Aim for the timing cylinder in the back!” The man in front, the leader of this conquest, shouted. _The hell is a timing cylinder? What are these idiots talking- oh._ It finally clicked in Hugo’s mind. The gentle music starting, a ‘timing cylinder’? These robots ran on _music_. What made them run was a music box tune. 

He wanted to take a moment to marvel at the robots, examine their insides, see what was going on, but he forgot about that when he snapped back to reality and saw the giant robot bounding on all fours towards them. Some of the men started to flank the beast on either side trying to find their way to behind the monstrosity. He thought they would’ve started wildly flailing their swords at the beast, but they made swift movements cutting off a hatch that was protecting the cylinder. 

A couple of men had been flung around, Hugo pretending to be one of them so he could watch, while one man finally managed to jump from a rock-spike onto the beast’s back, stabbing his sword into the cylinder, making the beast slowly power down, the green light in its eyes slowly fading to nothingness, and its limbs slowly falling to the ground in defeat. The men cheered, helping their victor off the beast. _The hell was that?_ Hugo muttered under his breath.

“An automaton. We fought them about a couple of days ago, right here as you can tell, heh.” A guard that was close enough to hear Hugo said. He offered a hand to Hugo and helped pull him up from the ground. “You’re the new kid, right?” He asked.

“Yeah, haha. Is it that obvious?” Hugo asked, trying to make a good impression so he could ask about what had occurred here.

“Eh, we usually don’t get much fresh meat to help out around here.” He said with a shrug. Being called _fresh meat_ put Hugo on edge a bit, but he shrugged it off, with an _easy in, easy out_ going through his head.

“I mean, I’ve heard the rumors and stuff about what had happened, but what was it like being there in person? What was going on?” Hugo asked, trying his best to sound innocently curious.

“Someone that had something against The King wanted to be heard, figured the only way to be heard was to kidnap The Queen, trap The King and The Princess and try to use her hair to fix something. No one really knows what happened inside the house, but we had to fight a bunch of these automatons, at least that’s what some people were calling them. Then all of a sudden, this giant robot burst out of the house following behind the Royal Family.” He said, gesturing to the house that had been wrecked. 

“Then The Princess grabbed some of those rocks and then nothing made any sense.” He said with a chuckle. Gesturing upwards, he continued his story. “Rocks started to sprout up and stabbed through the big machine. Then he realized he failed and just gave up.” He finished, gently tapping his chin, checking to make sure he had gotten all the main details.

“He…just gave up? After everything he did?” Hugo asked skeptically. The guard just nodded, starting to walk towards the larger group, waving his hand as to call Hugo to follow him. _None of this adds up. Something’s missing._ Hugo wanted to ignore the curious feeling steadily growing inside of him and just focus on completing the task at hand as fast as he could, but all the little tidbits of information, so vague yet weirdly detailed, kept watering this plant until it finally bloomed and Hugo couldn’t resist but to figure out the story. _If it’s bad on The King, that’s worth something._ Hugo told himself, trying to give himself more of a reason to give in to this foolish endeavor.

~-~-~

He met up with the rest of the guards as they took all they could back to Corona. No one said what The King would do with it, but his royal advisor had been instructing them on where it should go.

“His royal highness wants the pieces in the workshop. I do not know what he wants with them, but the blacksmith has already put in a request to gather some of the material.” The advisor had said, gesturing to where the workshop was. The lead guard nodded, the majority of the men pushing the carts to this so-called workshop. A maid had gracefully shuffled towards them, and with a slight nod of her head, she quietly uttered “Nigel, Dane, may I speak with you briefly?” The advisor, who must have been Nigel - _one down_ \- and the lead guard, Dane, made a small triangle between themselves and the maid as she whispered to them. Hugo tried to listen in, hearing something about a hearing occurring tomorrow. _Oh boy. I’m sure that'll be fun._ Hugo thought, casually wandering away, as to not look like he was eavesdropping.


	3. I Can Hear You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hugo gets the pleasure of "meeting" the guy that almost took the entire kingdom of Corona down, and it's safe to say that he is surprised.  
> -WARNINGS- mild panic attack, swearing, and I think that's mainly it!  
> *cough cough follow my tumblr @fic-foncs for occasional updates cough cough*

“Men, the hearing of Varian of Old Corona is today, and The King has requested utmost security, for the safety of his Royal Family.” The captain had started lecturing everyone this morning about what was happening today. The hearing for whoever it was that had caused all this damage. It seemed they were taking no risks, having 3 guards escort the prisoner to and from his cell to the throne room, always watching him, making sure he didn’t do anything. Hugo thought it was pretty extra, but he was interested, to say the least, as to how this would all unfold. There was still the normal security in the castle and dungeons, but practically everyone else that didn’t have an assigned role was to be at the hearing, to be on full watch of this ‘Varian’ and making sure The King, Queen, and Princess were safe from harm. 

“He is highly dangerous and volatile and could use anything against us. We don’t know exactly what he does or how he manages to do it, but we can’t take any risks. Try not to kill him, but don’t hesitate to threaten him if he shows any signs of resistance.” The captain finished. The rest of the guard gave nods of approval, with Hugo following suit. **_Try_ ** _not to kill him? The hell kind of command is that?_

~-~-~

It seemed like the entire royal guard was in this throne room. So many of them lined the walls, each one with a large halibut and some of those _stupid_ helmets. Normally, the sight of this would at least make Hugo a little nervous but also incredibly irate. He tried this time to be calmer, and grateful that he at least didn’t have to wear one of those stupid helmets. He did have a sharpened halibut, holding it straight as he leaned against the wall he was positioned against. 3 guards had left to grab the prisoner and bring him to the room, and to Hugo, it seemed like overkill, but it was obvious that the whole room was nervous and tense for what was about to happen. 

The royal advisor had walked in with The King, Queen, and Princess following. They sat in their respective thrones, except for The Princess who stood by her mother’s throne, barefoot, gently tapping her foot along the ground. _Well someone’s very confident of the guard and her safety._ Hugo thought sarcastically to himself, trying to make this situation at least a tiny bit more enjoyable. But after a while, Nigel had begun his weird speech about who was being ‘heard’ even though the prisoner hadn’t been retrieved quite yet.

“Today is the hearing of Varian of Old Corona,” He began. _No last name?_ “Son of Quirin, leader of Old Corona.” Hugo already could tell how this would play out. _This is the ‘kid’ the captain was talking about, he did something stupid cause he’s in a position of power and doesn’t care, helped the ‘bad guy’, got framed for everything, and now he’s going to burst in here crying about how it wasn’t his fault and how his dad was going to hear about this._ Hugo had heard this story before. The footsteps outside the room finally grew close enough to hear, as the doors swung open. Whatever Hugo was expecting **_this_ ** wasn’t it in the slightest.

This kid was **_puny_ **. A twig. Compared to Donella’s lackies, Hugo was ‘the twig’ but if Hugo was a twig, this kid was the stem of a leaf. He was wearing a light teal-blue shirt, a couple of patches sewn into the arms. He wore brown pants with a dark brown apron draped over the front of himself. His hair was a messy black bob, a ~~stunning~~ teal-blue streak near the front of his bangs that swayed gently above his face, almost covering it. He was pale, almost sickly. He was extremely skinny, probably malnourished. His hands had chains around them, but they couldn’t quite fit his wrists; he could probably wiggle out of the cuffs and the guards’ grasps if he wanted to, but he didn’t. 

He had ~~beautiful~~ blue eyes that were hollow, with large bags underneath them. If his eyes were the window to his soul, he’d surely be dead. Underneath his eyes, light freckles were splattered along his cheek, trying to blend in with his pale skin. There was no hope, no life on his face. He tried to look neutral, but Hugo could easily see through that mask and see the true anger and sadness that lay beneath. The guards were practically carrying him closer to the thrones, probably why it took so long to get him here. Their grip was tight on the kid, 1 on each shoulder, the one in the back with this hand wrapped loosely around the back of his neck, but ready to tighten if he fought. Upon being walked into the room, he only had eyes for the floor, but when he looked up the panic set in. The rage and depression suddenly turned to complete and utter fear, and none of the guards seemed to notice. If his skin could get any paler it did. He started breathing heavily but taking in no oxygen. He looked around the room and all the guards, which had seemed to set him off, and Hugo could understand why.

~-~-~

So many. Too many. Everywhere. There was no free space, no free oxygen, everyone was going to ram into him. _Hurt him._ He immediately started shivering and shaking out of fear, fight-or-flight starting to kick in, and he had no fight left in him. But the more he squirmed, the tighter the guards’ grip became the harder it became to get air the tighter his throat got the smaller the room became the larger everyone else became, he shrank he was so small ready to be squished like an unwanted bug in the kitchen. He had to get out get out of the grip get out of the room be by himself without so many eyes watching him judging him resenting him.

~-~-~

Rapunzel looked at all the guards, realizing that no one else was paying any attention to Varian’s panic attack, they just made it worse because they thought his aggressive shakes was an attempt to escape from the punishment, but it was an attempt to escape from all the people. He had been by himself for _so long_ , which was her fault, and suddenly being by so many people must have freaked him out. She looked frantically around the room, seeing if anyone else had noticed besides herself. It didn’t seem like it. She hesitantly raised her hand forward, trying to reach out to him and whispered his name, debating what she should do and what would make it worse. But a guard she hadn’t recognized had already picked up on his panic. 

He looked young but was tall and lanky. Neat, blonde hair tucked into a ponytail with circular glasses on. He reminded her of Varian, except for looks, which were almost polar opposites. He had strode up to the guards holding Varian, seemingly confident. She carefully watched as he tried to gently pry away the guards’ tight grip on Varian. The 3 guards looked confused and angry at first, but Rapunzel looked straight into their eyes, almost their souls. For someone so bright and cheery, her gaze was deadly. The guards gently let go of Varian’s shoulders and neck, only for the young blond to gently put a hand somewhere between his shoulder and back.

~-~-~

Varian didn’t notice anything until he felt the guards’ tight grip be released, only to be replaced by a gentle hand on his back. He flinched and quickly turned his head to glare at whoever had ~~saved~~ touched him. He was young, almost his own age, blond with glasses and **tall** . In reality, he wasn’t _that_ much taller than Varian but he seemed to tower over him at the moment. Varian’s panic hadn’t subsided until he looked into the boy’s eyes, expected to be met with anger, but was instead met with sympathy. **_Fake, fake it’s all fake no one actually cares_**. The boy’s grip was loose and somewhat trusting **_a mistake, he can’t be trusted_**. With the frenzied panic gone, the adrenaline that was making its way throughout his veins finally slowing down, he remembered what was going on, and finally met the boy’s dark green eyes with a look of manic violence. But it didn’t scare him off, didn’t make him flinch like it would the guards or others he knew. _This boy didn’t know what he had done_ **_how cruel and awful Varian was_**. Varian feared that he might have lost his ambition, his motivation to keep up this act of furor if he kept looking in this boy’s eyes so he quickly went back to glaring at the ground like it was the one that had caused all this **_like it was Rapunzel_**.

~-~-~

Hugo didn’t know what had happened, what had made him do that. It was stupid, could’ve wrecked the plan by getting himself fired, and then after incurring the guard’s wrath, he’d have to face Donella. But this kid looked so afraid, so helpless, ~~yet so cute,~~ he had to do something. His brain turned off and he let his closely guarded heart guide him to push past the older guards, and grab onto the kid himself. He tensed at first, but when he met Hugo’s eyes, ~~by the maker, his eyes~~ he seemed to calm down. Then flinch and tense up again, readjusting his mask of resentment towards everyone in the room.

~-~-~

No one had expected this, but as to not try to cause a larger disturbance, the guards settled to standing behind and to the sides of Varian, being cautious as his mood seemed to switch from fear to ease to animosity within seconds. The advisor, who had stopped at Varian’s mini-fit, started back up again. 

“Varian of Old Corona has been charged with treason against the crown, harming The Princess on multiple occasions, attempting regicide, kidnapping The Queen,” Nigel continued, listing off all the things this kid was being accused of. Hugo had unknowingly tuned out for a lot of the list, as it seemed to just go on and on, with failed inventions that risked lives, etc, etc. _By the maker, they really want this kid dead, don’t they?_ “...and hypothetical patricide.” He finished off. The room was silent for a bit, letting all of the information sink in. But there was a seemingly silent mumble. The royals looked to the accused kid. 

“What was that?” The King said, trying to sound threatening. 

“HE’S NOT DEAD!” The kid suddenly screamed, his cloak of impassiveness quickly disappearing. Hugo tensed, worrying that the kid would try to break out, and Hugo would have to stop him. The kid looked up to The King, making eye contact. He looked like he was made of porcelain, bound to shatter or break at any moment. One wrong word, one wrong move, one wrong _anything,_ and this kid would splinter to pieces. The pale skin, pink blushing along his face, tan-ish freckles scattered across his cheeks, the way his limbs went almost rag doll, everything echoed that he was bound to just collapse. He didn’t seem exactly ill, but one wrong decision and he’d crack like the horrific outcome of a careless child playing with a fragile toy. Someone would have to put the pieces back together. ~~Hopefully.~~ The King returned the glare to the kid and nodded at the man that read off the crimes, silently asking him to continue. The kid continued his glower towards The King, thinking it had gone unnoticed. Hugo untensed slightly, but Varian remained on high alert. 

“Our ruling,” The King started. “Is that Varian of Old Corona shall be put in jail for an indefinite amount of time, in isolation until we determine he isn’t dangerous. And per request from The Queen,” he said, looking over to his wife, who was solely focused on the small alchemist, with an expression of pure sorrow on her face. “shall be attended to by the royal physician to make sure that he is in good health and that he gets the help he needs.” The King finished, looking back at The Queen and Princess. Hugo’s jaw almost dropped, but he managed to stop it before he could embarrass himself. The kid almost killed all of them, apparently, and they were making sure he was healthy? Seconds before, everyone in the room looked ready to snap the kid’s neck in a heartbeat. And just putting him in jail? In the castle? He had heard that The Princess was a softie and had a strong influence on her parents, but this? Glancing around the room, everyone seemed as baffled as him, even Varian. 

“I- with all due respect, sire,” Nigel, who seemed to have an obvious dislike towards the ravenette, started. “Shouldn’t we do something more…” He cut himself off as The Queen broke her silent and pitiful staring contest to glare down at him. But everyone else in the room had already finished that sentence in their heads. _Aggressive? Violent?_

“The decision is final. Varian,” The Queen began, making eye contact with the kid. “We are so sorry we didn’t get a chance to help you in time, but you must be punished for what you’ve done. I hope you will forgive us with time.” She finished, leaving everyone in the room somehow more speechless than they already were. Except for Varian. 

“Why?” He asked in a low growl. _Oh, fuck._ The Queen looked confused. “Why are you PRETENDING that you ACTUALLY CARE NOW?!” The kid yelled, finally letting go of his veil of stoicness, the pure, uncut malice dripping from his words. There was a look of death in his eyes. Maybe his own, maybe the Royal Family’s. _By the maker, someone was going to die tonight. Me? Him? The family? The guard? Who knows anymore?_

“Varian, I am so sorry that I couldn’t help you, but you know that I couldn’t. I promise that I won't give up on you and my old promise to you.” The Princess said, almost as if she was pleading with Varian. Somehow, she thought that might calm him down, but it did quite the opposite. All the fear, sadness, and anger subsided in his face as pure rage, fury, and hatred took over. He looked like he was about to start cackling. Hugo became legitimately scared. This kid was small, but the _look_ in his eyes. 

“You COULDN'T do anything?” he barked, starting to chuckle. “Sure, I came _begging_ to you and you had more important things to do than to help a lonely child, but leaving me alone then? I had come to you because I was ABANDONED! And what did you do? ABANDON ME!” He screamed, voice surely raw from the screaming that was happening. The Princess flinched. Hugo had to hold him back. “And what were you doing after that, that kept you so busy for the next 3 months that you couldn’t come to see if I was even still alive?!” Varian looked like he was on the verge of breaking down crying, or slipping off the chains on his wrists and killing everyone in the room. Hugo’s mind started anxiously racing. 

“Varian, I went through a lot that day, and I had to take the time to process everything,” Rapunzel said, trying to give herself a reason as to why she hadn’t gone to check on him. 

“THEN WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WAS LIKE FOR ME?” He screeched, his voice cracking, the anguish, grief, and pain leaking through, tears of mourning and misery finally spilling from his eyes. “I had NO ONE! AND I STILL DON’T! AND I NEVER WILL! You had to deal with taking care of a kingdom, but I had to deal with the fact that I might’ve KILLED MY OWN FATHER!” He said, finally fully giving in to tears, his knees buckling under the state of weakness Varian was in. Hugo tried to catch him, grabbing onto his upper arms a bit too roughly trying to steady the young alchemist upright again. By the maker, this was a lot more than Hugo had signed up for. _CHRIST - what had they done to this kid?!_

“Varian.” The Princess tried to speak again, softly, tears also joining her eyes, much less pronounced than Varian’s. 

“How can I trust you?” He said, staring at the ground, his body trembling. All the energy he had left given to his little outburst of bitterness and sorrow. “How can I _forgive_ you after everything you did to me, after everything you made me do?” He choked out, trying to push past his tears. Rapunzel looked terrified at the child in front of her and seemingly disappointed at herself. 

“Why are you acting like you care? Why don’t you just go execute me or something? It’d save everyone here a whole hell of a lot of trouble.” He said, quieter, but sharper this time. The whole room silenced. He said what everyone else was thinking. “Take him to his cell.” The King then said, a bit suddenly. The guards that stood next to each of Varian’s shoulders shoved Hugo out of the way and hefted him up back to his full height and started to ~~carry~~ walk him away. But he got in one last retort before he left. 

“And _P_ _rincess_?” He said the word as if it had left a bitter taste in his mouth. She looked at him, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. “You can stop pretending. You never fooled anyone.” He finished, his final quip drenched in rancor. 

After finally being walked out of the room, it was eerily silent, everyone stunned at what had just happened. The Princess stood there in shock, her tears never slowing down. Her mother stood and tried to comfort her. The King waved his hand to signal all the guards to leave. The guard that had been holding onto Varian’s neck glared at Hugo along with the captain. They all swiftly left, leaving the Royal Family to deal with all of what had transpired on their own.

~-~-~

Hugo had gone to pacing in a small room he didn’t know the purpose of by himself. 

_That was unexpected._

4 steps.

 _How could_ **_that_ ** _kid take down the entire Royal Family_ **_and_ ** _guard?_

4 more.

_Why the hell did I do that?!_

Pivot.

_Do I tell Don about this? Would she care?_

4 steps.

 _This won’t hurt the plan._ ~~_Right?_~~

4 more.

_By the maker, that kid was messed up._

Pivot.

~~_What was this feeling he had when Varian looked at him?_ ~~

4 steps. 

_Easy in,_

4 more.

_Easy out._

Pivot.

_Augh, what would Don-_

  
He was interrupted mid-mental-crisis by a familiar cawing. It was one of Donella’s birds, Hugo had almost forgotten that he was supposed to send her a letter telling her if he got in or not. He wrote that he got in, _no one was suspicious_ and gave a brief summary of what the hell had just happened. _You know how Corona was almost taken down by one guy? Turns out he’s like 12 with some bad emotional management skills._ ~~ _He’s kind of cute._~~ He quickly finished the letter, leaving out that last part, almost slamming his head into the table, double-checked that no one was watching, and finished by sliding the paper between the bird’s claws and watched as it quickly flew off and glided away gracefully. _Hell, what have I just been signed up for?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I put the notes here at the end because I wanted to point something out, which is that in Varian's sort-of-panic-attack paragraph, the writing is a bit weird and can be hard to read, but I made it like that on purpose, so sorry if you had trouble reading that bit ( ♡ ͜ ♡)  
> I really like this chapter, so I hope you do too! As always, thank you so much for the support and criticisms/critiques are welcomme :) See you guys next week!


	4. How Far Down Does This Hill Go?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hugo has a rough day, Varian has yet another mental breakdown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made an update on my tumblr talking a bit more about a bigger "update" I did involving the series this fic is now a part of, so if you're confused about any of that stuff go check out this post: https://fic-foncs.tumblr.com/post/625808745400778752/spacedoutdude-series-archive  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, bad mental health/mental breakdowns, the usual ( ͡°ω ͡°)

Hugo was making his way to the main office of the captain, his head swimming about what it would be about. _His interaction with Varian? Had they finally figured out he didn’t belong? Would they turn him in?_ Anything and everything was on the table. All the guards had had a quick meeting about the hearing, and Hugo had been asked to return to talk to the captain one-on-one after he had gotten ready for the day. He had already sent a letter to Don saying that he had infiltrated, so it would be a real shame if he had gotten himself fired right after.

He quietly slipped into the room and stood against the back wall. The captain noticed and turned to him with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Hugo,” He started. “I, and the other guards, didn’t quite appreciate the stunt you pulled yesterday with the prisoner-”

“-I know, it was stupid. I have to say, I’ve grown used to this lecture-” Hugo butted in, trying to sound not too cheeky. The captain glared at Hugo, not enjoying being cut off and disrespected by this young boy. Hugo quickly shut his mouth.

“But, it seems Princess Rapunzel disagrees.” He said with a sigh. _What?_ “She appreciated your sympathy for the boy, and when you “comforted” him in his panic.” _Oh._ **_Oh no._ ** “So, even if I don’t particularly agree with it, The Princess wants you to be Varian’s personal guard. We need to make sure he doesn’t try anything, at any time, as his means of weaponry are different than what we know and are familiar with. It also seems that he will be transported to many different places on a typical day, so we’ll need someone to escort him to and from.” He said, clearly a little pained to admit that it was a good idea. **_Oh fuck._ **

“Ha, I-I,” Hugo was speechless. _This would mess up the mission, he wouldn’t be able to explore, and it’s safe to say he would be...distracted._

“Believe me, I don’t agree with it either, but it’s an order of sorts from The Princess.” The captain said, pained. “Of course, you’ll be with other guards as well at first; I don’t quite trust you too much yet.” _So he’s the one with the singular brain cell of the royal guard._

“Heh, all due respect sir,” he said, dramatically and over the top. “But uh, you sure The Princess didn’t mistake me for someone else? Anyone else? Can’t you talk to her about it ‘cause I have a feeling we’re on the same page here.” Hugo said, almost pleadingly, begging the captain not to do this.

With another sigh, the captain started, “Well, you’ll be able to discuss this with her yourself, she wants to meet you one-on-one in 15 minutes.” **_Ah, fuck._ ** _This plan is getting derailed faster than I’m processing it._ Hugo thought to himself. “Meet her in the war room.” He said with a wave of a hand, dismissing Hugo.

~-~-~

This kingdom was already on Hugo’s hit list and it was giving him more reasons to be in first on a silver platter. _You hate nobles and look where you are now. Being forced to obey them._ Hugo had to stop himself from going haywire and attacking everyone and just getting punished by Donella. _Anything would be better than this._ Hugo thought to himself as he arrived at the war room, not expecting to see The Princess there and also by herself. Hugo tensed at first but relaxed into gentle loathing.

“Your _majesty_ ,” Hugo said, taking a cartoonishly large bow to her.

“Oh! You’re the guard that…” She tried to find the correct words to phrase it.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s me. It was a stupid move, I wasn’t thinking, very sorry.” Hugo said sarcastically, trying to hurry this along.

“Oh, no no! Don’t be sorry,” she said with a slight laugh, not reading his sarcasm. “It seemed like you were the only guard who noticed... _his_ panic and actually did something.” She danced around the kid’s name, which was odd, but Hugo was too focused on trying to change The Princess’s mind.

“Well, I mean, it seemed like he was trying to escape, so, it was the only logical thing to do.” He said, trying to give a reason to his actions for both of them.

“Even if you did it just to stop him from leaving, he seemed calmer around you than anyone else. The rest of the guards say that he’s been equally jumpy and unflinching.” The Princess said with a confused look on her face. “He did terrible things to me, my family, and my kingdom, but he’s still a kid. I’m not even thinking about dealing with all those emotions soon, but still, we’re worried about him.”

“It seems like only you and The Queen think that,” Hugo stated, recalling the hearing.

“Hah, I guess so.” She said sheepishly. “But most of his _problems_ come from abandonment issues, I think, so we want someone to be there for him when he needs it. And seeing how you two reacted to each other,” Hugo felt a mild blush come across his face. “I think you’d do really well as that person for him.” She finished with a smile wide on her face.

“Yeah, well. I don’t think we’re quite on the same page here, _Pr_ _incess_.” He said. It reminded Rapunzel of how Varian would talk to her since the last couple of times they’d seen each other.

“I know you’re new, and it’d be a bit of work getting used to it, so I’d encourage you to start soon to get used to it.” Hugo was about to say something, but The Princess cut him off. “Because you also don’t really have that much of a choice here. I just wanted to tell you why I choose you to be his personal guard.” She said, her smile now seeming wicked. Hugo frowned.

“I really don’t think this is the best idea.” He simply stated, no arguments coming to mind. She simply smiled at him again and left the room when another voice called for her. 

“Thank you, Hugo!” _How the_ **_HELL_ ** _did she find out my name?_

~-~-~

After a quick silent scream session, Hugo exited the war room to head back to where the rest of the guards were. He had been awake for barely an hour and was already prepared to kill the next thing to give him problems. This was rather unfortunate for the giant rat he was about to encounter.

He found the rest of the guards all sitting around, seemingly waiting for something. He scowled and looked around, feeling a light brush of fur against his shin. It made the hair on his neck stand up, and he carefully placed his hand on his waist, where he had hidden one of his daggers. He had clenched onto the weapon, but then saw the 2 rather unfortunate guards tasked with catching whatever this was stumble around helplessly and let go of the small knife. He quickly jogged up to the 2 guards, trying to observe what they were doing. 

“Pete, go around the right to cut him off!” One of the guards yelled, just to have the other, Pete, reply with, “Your right or my right?” Hugo decided to jump in, shouting, “They’re the same direction, dipstick!” The guard paused for a second, probably offended, but then saw a flash of gray fur and continued his chase.

The other guard glanced over to Hugo, seemingly also offended, but Hugo just shrugged at him, asking, “What’re you two doing?” 

“Catching the kid’s no-good rat-cat-thing!” He said, turning left. Hugo followed him, ready to grab this creature. Before Pete and the other guard could notice anything, they bumped straight into each other, squishing the animal slightly in between them. Hugo calmly walked past, and scooped up the animal in his arms, holding him out slightly to see what it was. 

“It’s a raccoon. Do you two really not know what a raccoon is?” Hugo said, unconsciously hugging the animal closer, the animal not putting up too much of a fight after realizing his escape would never happen. Rubbing his head, the unnamed guard spoke. 

“Well, whatever it is doesn’t matter, it just needs to either get out or…” He scratched his head thinking of a separate option. 

“He could go into the dungeons with the kid. He usually doesn’t like to leave him.” Pete said, slowly standing up. 

“What crimes could a raccoon get punished for? Like jail punished?” Hugo asked, very seriously doubting that these guards were being serious. 

“Oh he didn’t do anything, but he’s Varian’s pet, I think. And that raccoon puts up a big fight when we try to separate them.” Pete said, rubbing the back of his neck. “So we probably should just give him back, then.” The unnamed guard said, looking towards his guard companion. “Wait a second. Who are you?” He asked, gesturing towards Hugo. 

“New recruit. You?” Hugo retorted. “Oh, well, I’m Pete and this is Stan.” Pete said, gesturing towards Stan, the one asking Hugo all these questions. “Oh, hey, wait!” Pete said, a look of realization spreading across his face. “You’re going to be Varian’s new personal guard, right?” He asked. 

“Did everyone know except me?” Hugo offered but nodded to his question. 

“Why don’t you take that raccoon to him? It’d save everyone a trip.” He suggested. Hugo was already having a bad day, how much worse could it get? 

“You know what, sure,” Hugo said, his face scrunching up in fake pain. He quickly walked off, towards where he hoped the dungeons were.

~-~-~

Varian wasn’t doing too well. Varian wasn’t doing well. Varian was barely doing. After his _incident_ at the hearing, he had been more tired and confused than ever. His body desperately yelled at him to sleep, but he refused to listen, not wanting the guards or anyone to be able to do anything to him while he was unconscious. He at least wanted Ruddiger. He missed Ruddiger so much. His loyal companion had stuck with him through it all. Being turned into a monster, helping Varian with his experiments, even joining him on his trip to the prison. Unfortunately, they hadn’t let the pet come to the hearing, and he had scampered off, not wanting to be taken by the guards. 

That was the last he had seen of his buddy, and Varian feared that Ruddiger had finally given up on him as everyone else had. He had curled himself into a ball in the corner of the cell, feeling more exposed than ever after being stripped of his goggles, gloves, and apron. He was so tired but refused to sleep. He was so hungry, but he wouldn’t eat. There was no way he’d give in to these guards, this kingdom. There was still a lot on his mind from yesterday. _What did Rapunzel mean? Why do they care? What do they see in me? Why are they being so nice? Haven’t they already tortured me enough?_ ~~_And who was that boy?_ ~~

He was pulled from his thoughts by a familiar clinking of boots, hissing of a certain raccoon, and small noises of complaint from whoever was walking towards his cell. Varian tried as best he could to pull himself deeper into his ball, with not much luck, having been already tucked into himself, as much as the chains around his wrists and feet allowed him. 

The boots went from a walking pace to more of a jog, as heard small scampers of tiny paws hitting the cold ground, followed by those footsteps and a soft voice whisper-yelling, “Goddammit - you get back here!”

Varian picked his head up slightly to be met with Ruddiger trying to gently pry his way through the bars of the cell. Varian huffed a little, putting his shaking arms out, to catch the animal once it had fallen into the cell. 

“Ruddiger,” he breathed, hugging the animal close. “I didn’t think you’d come back this time.” His voice was equally dry and cracked from the lack of water he was drinking and usage of his voice, while also being wet, pierced by small tears. 

“And the thing’s got a name.” The voice said, finally coming into view. It was _the_ boy.

Varian quickly tucked Ruddiger inside his shaking ball and put his head on top of the raccoon’s, his small tears disappearing into the animal’s fur. Ruddiger chittered softly, in an attempt to comfort his boy.

“Didn’t know animals were allowed in prison.” The boy said with a shrug, finally reaching Varian’s cell. Varian didn’t even glance up. He automatically recognized the boy from the quick glimpse he had gotten, he was the one from the hearing the other day. The one that had pulled Varian out his panicked trance, but Varian wouldn’t let the blonde get the satisfaction. He’d probably guilt trip the ravenette, like most people that would show him kindness would do ~~_not Rapunzel_ ~~. 

~-~-~

Hugo eyed the boy, curled into a small ball with the raccoon absorbed in the center, carefully. This kid was like a ticking time bomb of emotions. Hugo had tried to lull the boy into a conversation by talking about the raccoon, but it didn’t work. _Doesn’t he remember me?_ He could barely see the raccoon inside the boy’s cage of arms and legs. _Ok, different approach._

“I like your hair-stripe. What’d you use to dye it?” Hugo asked, desperately trying to pull Varian into a conversation. No change at all. Not even a glance or acknowledgment. Hugo sighed, pushing his glasses up by the bridge. _Not a talker, huh?_

“So the raccoon’s name is Ruddiger? Where’d that come from Hairstripe?” He asked, hoping the raccoon would be a soft spot after he had slightly touched on the topic. Still nothing. He did twitch a little at the nickname. _There’s something at least._

“Look, you can keep being all sad and pouty, but you’re going to have to talk to me eventually,” Hugo said, giving up. It was too early to deal with this.

“Don’t tell me what I have to do,” Varian said with a rough voice. _And he speaks._ Hugo smirked, the kid finally glancing up at him. It was unnerving, seeing all that rage in his eyes, but it was better than being ignored.

“Well,” Hugo said, running his fingers gently against the bars of the cell. “I believe I’m going to be your _“personal guard”_ , so you better get used to me.” He finished, smiling at the boy in the corner. 

The smile was quickly ripped off his face as the boy quickly raced up to the bars, dropping the raccoon. He ran straight to where Hugo was standing on the other side, quickly making Hugo stumble back. Varian was shaking, obviously having gotten up too fast, but not letting it bother him. His smile wasn’t sarcastic like Hugo’s, it was frighteningly vile. He gripped onto the bars, the only thing supporting his weight.

“Well,” He said, mocking Hugo. “ _You’ll_ have to get used to _me_ .” He finished, slumping back against the wall and ground, much to the raccoon’s delight. Hugo wasn’t scared, more stunned. _The emotional whiplash of this kid!_

Hugo quickly brushed himself off after Varian sat back down and started to walk away before stopping, turning back to Varian and saying, “The name’s Hugo, by the way.” He heard a quiet scoff and walked back to the other guards.

~-~-~

Varian didn’t like this kid. He was too cocky and verbal for his liking. Varian was hoping to wallow in his sorrows and drown in his tears privately, which he was beginning to think might never happen. Luckily, the kid got tired of Varian being unresponsive and then snapping, so he left. _“The name’s Hugo, by the way.”_ The boy’s name was Hugo. Varian scoffed in response, the last of this act going away as soon as he left. 

Varian couldn’t hold back any longer and really broke down. He had **_failed_ ** . Again. And again. Like he always did. _They were all right._ Varian thought, thinking of all the people from the village that said he was a menace, someone that couldn’t do anything right no matter how hard he tried. They hadn’t said it to him or his father directly, but Varian had learned how to lurk and stay quiet to avoid trouble. He let everything out. 

The tears refused to stop coming, no matter how much he desperately tried to rip them from his face with the backs of his hands. His mind jumped from sadness of his history to his rage of everyone abandoning them to his grief over losing his father to his determination to _make them pay_. The jumping voices would quiet down eventually, Varian had grown to know. They would scream in his brain until they got tired out, and so did he. He’d then gently fall asleep, a sad look on his face even in unconsciousness, Ruddiger brushing himself on Varian’s cheeks in a vain attempt to dry his tears. The best Ruddiger could do was to lay on his human’s shoulders, giving comfort, and ready to wake him if anything happened. This process had become a melancholy norm for the two.

~-~-~

For the rest of the day, Hugo had just taken multiple shifts in the dungeons, mainly keeping an eye on Varian. He had finally fallen asleep, and Hugo thought he might’ve even died with how far gone he was. It was a calm end to his more than active morning. He was getting ready to go to bed and end the day already, before he heard faint, yet familiar, cawing outside. Hugo sighed, finding that same room where he wrote his original letter to Donella. It seems that she had something urgent to get to Hugo. He walked into the empty room, opening the window to let the bird in. It flapped its wings, shoving it’s talon out to get Hugo to take the note. Donella was usually straight to the point, so he was interested to see how much further this month could go downhill.

**_Gain his trust. Bring him with. I expect updates once a week until this month is over. Tell me how the mission is going and if we should be expecting an addition to our team of alchemists._ **

**_Don_ **

  
Hugo closed his eyes, rolled his head up, and groaned loudly. _Perfect. Perfect. Just perfect. Get the mute kid that’s an active time bomb to be friends with you and break him out of prison when you escape. Perfect. Easy in. Easy out._ **_Easy in. Easy out. Easy._ ** Hugo threw the paper across the room in a quick moment of rage, but just as quickly dusted himself off, regaining his composure. The bird cocked its head to the side before Hugo gave it a nod as to dismiss it. Hugo wanted to scream but settled for ripping up the paper, which he had to get rid of anyways. He walked back to his bed and flopped down, silently wishing that he could just go comatose and not have to deal with all this bullshit. But of course, he always got the short end of the stick. He just had to keep this act up for the rest of the month. Easy. _Easy._ **_Easy._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update for next Sunday (August 16th) will be pushed back to that Monday or Tuesday (August 17th/18th)! But other than that upload will be normal :) <3


	5. The Third Wheel To A War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Rapunzel's last day in Corona before she takes off on an adventure of her own. She wants to tie up some loose strings, but some strings refused to be tied. Meanwhile, Hugo is having the time of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative chapter summary: everyone has a shit day.  
> I wasn't sure if I would get this finished by today but here we are! It's late but better than 2 days late I hope!  
> Hope you guys enjoy even tho it's a bit shorter (^ = ^)  
> -WARNINGS- light swearing, bad mental health, slight claustrophobia mention, mentions of death, lots of little things per usual

Rapunzel was conflicted, to say the least. So much had happened in the past couple of days, so many emotions left to piece together and figure out, so many different things to feel about different people, too much going on in her mind. Herself, her family, and her friends had been way _too_ close to death _too_ many times during “The Battle of Old Corona” as people were calling it. 

So much destruction, all stemmed from one small boy who had the worst day of his life. Varian was a difficult thing to think about. She felt angry, sad, pitiful, regretful, guilty, so many things that battled to be on top. She wasn’t sure to be mad at him or feel sorry for him. To forgive him or make sure he’s punished. And add some black rock-spike moonstone magic and you’ve got yourself a mental crisis just waiting to come tumbling down. 

She knew she had it leave Corona, follow the rocks, follow her destiny. She had been trapped so many times for her “protection” but it seemed that danger just followed her. So why not follow it back? She had decided to go an adventure and follow the rocks with mainly Eugene, Cassandra, and Lance. They were to depart tomorrow, so today was the day to tie up loose ends in Corona. And there was one long, teal colored thread that was tangled, frayed, and knotted in itself. 

Varian. He had attacked everyone she held close, but she wasn’t completely not at fault. So many different things could have been done on both sides, and those things weren’t. Maybe if she had gone to check up on him, if he hadn’t automatically jumped to violent revenge. But the maybe’s and what-if’s weren’t doing anything, weren’t helping anyone, so to heck with them! She wouldn’t forget, and maybe soon she could forgive, but as of right now, he needed to hone up to what he did to her and her loved ones. 

Maybe he didn’t deserve to be in jail, he was only 14 after all, and maybe she didn’t exactly trust her father to give him the help he needs, but what more could she do? Against The King, no one had much of a say against him, especially if it’s about “protecting” his family. But she had to do something. At least attempt to untangle the mess of teal colored thread that was left behind in a jail cell underneath the castle right now. 

She had just appointed a new guard as Varian’s personal guard, the least she could do without her father going berserk. She had made up her mind that she wanted to visit Varian on this last day, one last hurrah before she left. She only told Eugene and Cassandra, and they reacted similarly to why she didn’t tell her dad. They told her it was too dangerous, he was still a big threat to everyone, especially Rapunzel. 

He was moody, unstable, and brazen, according to Eugene from what he’d overheard the guards say and a danger and threat to Rapunzel and her family from Cassandra. But in the end, they knew they couldn’t stop Rapunzel, nothing could. Rapunzel was a lot more eager to try to turn things around with Varian than Cass or Eugene, both of them still mad and unforgiving towards Varian for hurting Rapunzel, her family, and them. But she was going to try to help him before she left. She would make do with what Varian gave her to work with.

~-~-~

Hugo had been having normal, uneventful days. That was until The Princess’s last day, where she decided that she was going to talk to Varian, no matter what anyone did or said. Everyone tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t. She was a barreling boulder making her way to the Captain, to request a visit with Varian. 

Hugo couldn’t hear their ~~argument~~ conversation, but it seemed like the Captain eventually just gave in, telling Hugo to accompany The Princess during the visit, staying right by Varian’s side to make sure he didn’t try anything. Hugo **_knew_ ** this wouldn’t end well. He had been trying to talk to Varian for the entire week, with no avail. The kid was silent, barely sleeping or eating, probably in a ludicrous protest. The only noises he ever made was the quiet talks to his raccoon and the quiet sobbing he must have thought he was hiding well. 

Whenever Hugo heard his cries, he couldn’t help but want to comfort Varian for some reason. He would automatically wipe the thought from his head, but every time without fail, his brain would betray him, thinking, _Please, let me help. Let me make you feel better._ He would blush a little and then proceed to mentally slap himself. _Rule 1, don’t get attached. Easy._ **_Easy._ **

Varian was escorted by Hugo to a separate room, one that was more private but still like a cell. He had taken his arm and led him in the opposite direction of where they would usually go, (the infirmary or something similar) and he looked at the blonde with a slightly confused expression dawning across his face. Hugo made eye contact, quickly looking away and quiet muttering, “The Princess wants to talk to you.”

~-~-~

**_What. The hell._ ** _What did Rapunzel have to say to him? What did she want? He had already suffered enough and it had only been a week. She must think this is so funny. Me, suffering, in jail. Her, having fun, pretending nothing happened._ Varian knew better than to try anything, he was closely watched and also hadn’t been sleeping or eating much, he was never too hungry anymore and he never wanted to sleep. 

The nightmares were too real, too much. He knew he’d wake in a cold sweat, screaming and crying, which would make the guards yell at him to shut up, and the rest of the prisoners that could hear him glare in his directions, daggers in their eyes. He allowed himself to be walked to the room with Hugo’s hand on his shoulder, spotting Rapunzel already there, pacing back and forth. She looked confused, sad, and angry yet surprisingly even-handed. He hated it. 

Hugo had ushered him inside, where Rapunzel stared at him, looking him up and down, examining how he was doing. Hugo kept a grasp on his shoulder, but less of a constrictive ‘don’t try anything’ hold and more of a gentle ‘good luck’ grasp.

“Varian, I-” The Princess began.

“I’m sorry?” Varian finished for her, his voice was hoarse from not speaking for a while. “I think you’ve said that a few too many times, _Princess_.”

Rapunzel gave a look between guilt, pity, and offense. “Varian, I really mean it. Today is my last day in Corona for awhile. I’m following the black rocks, I think they’re calling me to somewhere.” She said, stepping a bit closer to Varian. Hugo tightened his grip onto Varian and took a step back, pulling Varian with him away from her.

“So you’re just leaving? I can’t say that I expected anything better from you. That’s what your entire family does. Walk away until the problem’s been cleaned up.” Varian said with a scoff.

“I’m not _just_ leaving. I’m leaving so I can finally put an end to these rocks and all this magic, Varian. I’m not just leaving you behind. I’ll always be there for you.” She wasn’t sure what compelled her to say that, but it felt right. Yet, it didn’t to Varian.

“You’ll always be there for me? Really? I thought we got past lying to my face like this.” He said, dejectedly looking towards the ground, a grimace on his face.

Rapunzel opened her mouth to say something, _anything_ , but nothing could come out. Hugo looked to Varian, who must have made his mind up about something as he glared up, looking at Rapunzel.

She’d never seen this look in _anyone’s_ eyes before. It was death, haunting, hollow, pessimistic. The polar opposite to who she usually was.

“You promised me so many things. You told me everything would be fine.” He closed his eyes and clenched his fists. “I don’t think being in jail is fine! My father on his deathbed isn’t fine! Nothing is okay! You couldn’t keep a single one of your promises! You only say ‘I promise’ to tide people over, it doesn’t mean anything to you! I can’t believe I actually thought you meant it. I was s-so stupid.” He started shouting, ending with a slight whisper. He fidgeted in Hugo’s grip, a lazy attempt at an escape. Hugo looked to Rapunzel, a look of confusion on his face.

“I-I’ll help you when I can Varian, I-” Rapunzel cut herself off.

“Promise?” Varian finished for her. He looked back to the floor.

“Varian, my father will help you. I can say that much. I just hope that maybe in time you can forgive everyone. I really do hope that you’ll get better.” She said, fingers curling in on themselves.

“I-I believed you for so long,” Varian said, a lot quieter than his other blowup. “I…really thought you did care about me when we first met.” He sighed, face wet with small tear streaks. “But I can see now it was just an act, wasn’t it? You care about your _real_ friends and I hurt them.”

Hugo was ready to leave the moment they stepped inside the room. But now the feeling of _‘get_ ~~_him_ ~~ _out’_ just kept escalating. 

“We were friends, I just made some mistakes of priority. I just wanted to try to make things a little better. I-I…once you can realize what you did was wrong and once you get better, we can make amends! I won’t ever forget what happened, but I’m sure we can make up once I get back. We both just need time to realize where we went wrong.” Rapunzel said, trying her best to be as sympathetic as possible.

“I d-did what I n-need to do.” He stuttered out, feeling so small in this room yet still feeling claustrophobic. “H-how am I supposed to trust you again? H-how am I supposed to _t-trust_ again?” Varian asked, awfully quiet. Hugo hated hearing him say that. No clue as to why, but he did. “Rapunzel, I-I did s-so many bad t-things. A-and I d-don’t know what to d-do.” He said, rapidly stuttering yet quietly, just enough for Rapunzel to hear it.

“Varian, please, listen,” Rapunzel started, but the crazed look in Varian’s eyes at those words was enough for Hugo to make up his mind. That was it. They were getting out.

“Sorry Princess,” Hugo started, clearing his throat to get the attention of the room. “I have to go escort Varian to his checkup with the royal physician soon, we must go.” He grabbed Varian’s shoulder a bit tighter, beginning to turn him around. 

“Goodbye, Varian. I-I…” She said, trailing off wistfully. “Hugo?” He turned his head to face The Princess slightly. “Please, please, take care of him.”

Hugo nodded, barely processing the fact that Varian was on the verge of sobbing. It was good that he took him out when he did, Varian wouldn’t have lasted much longer. 

~-~-~

Hugo ushered Varian inside the cell before carefully stepping inside the cell himself. Varian looked confused up at Hugo.

“I thought we were going to the physician?” He asked, trying his best not to sniffle or hiccup.

“I-you just looked like you needed to get out of there,” Hugo said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away.

“Oh.” He said quietly, a few tears leaking through. “Why are you in here then?” He realized.

“I wanted to talk. See what happened, how you were doing.” Hugo said.

“Oh. So what do you want?” Varian asked.

“What? I just wanted to talk. I don’t need anything from you.” The blonde said, equally confused.

“Y-you’re not trying to get me to do something for you? Why else would you be nice to me? Want me to build some automatons? Some compounds? I’m not stupid. You want something.” He said, curling up in his corner, the raccoon on his ‘bed’ finally waking up and joining him. 

_What had this kid been through?_

“No, really, I don’t want anything. I’m just interested to see what happened. I’ve only gotten stories from some apathetic guards.” Hugo said, a little excited because after all, this was the longest he seemed to be talking to anyone since the hearing.

Varian looked at him, his eyes glassy.

“It’s what they said it was. King made a mistake, tried to point it out, no one paid attention. Kidnapped The Queen, and now all the attention is on me.” He said, stating it as if it were a fact everyone knew.

“That’s…it? There wasn’t _anything_ else?” Hugo asked, legitimately curious now. There was no way _that_ was it.

Varian curled further up in his corner.

“I…I don’t want to talk about it.” He muttered out, teeth grit and bared.

Hugo sighed. “You’ll have to eventually, people are gonna want the story from you.” He said, getting up with the intent of leaving Varian alone.

“ **None** of them care about me. **No one** cares about me. About what I have to say. About my family.” Varian said quietly, still tucked into his little ball in the corner with that raccoon climbing onto his shoulders and giving reassuring chitters. Hugo walked out of the cell, making sure to lock it securely behind him.

“There’s usually someone that will care. Whether they do at first is if-y, but eventually, they will.” ~~_Hopefully she does._ ~~ He said, before walking away.

What was he doing? Trying to make him feel better. He had a job to do. _He should probably go do that job._ He turned on his heel heading back towards the ravenette’s cell.

“Hey, even if there’s no one here that cares about you, you can always go somewhere else. Start new. ‘Cause being ‘cared for’ isn’t being locked up in a cell.” Hugo said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Varian picked his head up. “What is your goal here? Do you _want_ me to escape? Cause if you are, you’re making a big case for yourself getting fired.” He said, attempting as best he could for as tired as he was to sound haughty.

“I just…want you to know there are options other than rotting in jail for however long they decide to keep you here,” Hugo said, finally walking off again. 

Varian pondered the boy’s offer. Starting fresh sounded nice. But how the hell would he escape? Why was he trying to help him? _Why did he want to go with him?_

~-~-~

Varian slouched back into the corner of the cell. There was nothing for him. There never was. There was only his father and alchemy, which the latter had betrayed him and his father. Then there was Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassie…but no longer. The dam broke once again, it was getting so fragile after having to be put back together over and over again. He cried for what had happened, what could’ve happened, what was happening. It was all too much, so many questions with no answers. 

That was usually a challenge to Varian, there was no solution-less problem that existed. But he was naive. There were so many problems that truest had no solutions. Broken promises, misplaced trust, shattered friendships, arguments that ended in disaster, grief, and suffering, punishment for crimes. **_Death_ ** . As much as Varian wanted to pity himself, feel _something_ for himself, he couldn’t. Because there was worse out there. 

There was still his father encased in that monstrous monolith of amber. There was always something worse, something bigger than him. A blizzard. Some rocks. A formula gone awry. He was always that kid, that boy. The only time people thought of him as anything close to equal was when they didn’t know him or were scared of him. Even then, the Royal Family, all of Rapunzel’s friends, everyone he knew still treated him like a child that had just been misled. 

Which maybe he was at a baseline, but he was more than that. He could be more than that. But here he was, slowly decaying in his prison cell, refusing to sleep in fear of nightmares, refusing to eat as a form of limited protest. He never did much or go places willingly. The people he was taken to insisted they were helping him, but he knew better. He knew better than to trust these people’s empty promises, their meaningless ‘help’. He couldn’t quite make anyone pay exactly how he wanted while in prison, but he sure as hell wouldn’t make life easy for them.

~-~-~

Hugo felt guilty. **Guilty** . The last time he felt a twinge of guilt about manipulating things to go his way, make people see a new, ‘better’, direction was when he…he couldn’t even remember. He had learned to turn off his fragments of a moral compass while he worked with Don, so why did this feel so different? It felt so much more invasive, unnerving, wicked. _Was he manipulating Varian or was Varian manipulating him?_

He contemplated for the rest of his break, barely noticing the guards walking in and out of rooms, the quiet chatter between them all. All he could think about was _Varian_ . The way he talked, the way he looked, the way he shrank so deep into the ground in fear. The mask he always had on, covering his true emotions. It would all come crumbling down soon, Hugo knew it. The kid was already breaking, his tears barely being hidden anymore. _What was he doing?_ **_A job._ **


	6. The Biggest Betrayer Is The Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varian gets another visitor that actually helps him a bit. On the other hand, Hugo's still having a blast hanging out in the Coronian prisons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is a week late! ( T ^ T ) Some stuff happened in my personal life, and at the same time school started and I got writer's block!!! Woo!!! So that's why I'm posting this chapter a bit early :) Next update should be next week, but with school and stuff I might go to posting one every 2 weeks  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, mental breakdowns, lots of crying, lots of bad thoughts (hence the title), but nothing too bad

The Princess had left. She took her rag-tag team of misfits with her and followed those deadly spikes to her so-called ‘destiny’. Hugo thought it more along the lines of ‘death’. But, who was he to judge? He jumped from job to job, not caring about the danger of it. And they never were too dangerous for Hugo, he could use his silver tongue and get out of nasty situations, use alchemy to escape, and so on and so forth. 

But this little mission Donella has sent him on was a little too dangerous for Hugo’s liking. Because he could talk his way out of problems he found himself in, but it was harder to talk himself out of his own feelings. He had already broken one of Don’s main rules, _don’t get attached._ But, in his defense, she had basically asked him to get attached to this small alchemist. _Convince him, make him like you._ He was just…getting a little too into his ploy. 

He had tried so hard to push his feelings into the deepest corner of his heart and mind, but they kept on popping up every time he talked to Varian. His eyes were a stunning blue ~~if you ignored the dead look in them~~ . His face was small with freckles splattered all over his checks. And that stupid buck-toothed smile. He had only seen Varian smile once, given it was when someone else was suffering, but it was still beautiful nonetheless. He didn’t want to accept the fact he liked Varian. He didn’t want to _think_ about the fact he liked Varian. 

But he could never stop his brain from wandering when he looked at Varian, his small body, and his alluring face. He wanted Varian to be _his_ . He wanted to _protect_ Varian. He wanted to whisk Varian away and be with him so that no one else could hurt the ravenette as the entire kingdom had. And he would. Eventually. But for now, he had to settle with gazing at Varian, quickly looking away ~~while blushing~~ when he noticed Hugo staring at him.

~-~-~

Varian wasn’t having fun. Rapunzel and her _real friends_ had left, leaving him in the dust. **_So much for all those promises she made._** But it wasn’t like she meant them in the first place. He was happy she was gone, no more surprise visits with her trying to make him feel...better? More guilty? Less guilty? He didn’t know the point of The Princess’s visit, but as long as she got the memo of **_you did this to me, this is your fault_** , he was satisfied. 

The only downside to her departure was that she was, in fact, really the only thing keeping him from death row. Everyone hated him; Old Corona, the kingdom, the guards, the other prisoners, The King, The Queen, everyone. But their hatred towards him was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of getting his father back. He often wondered what his father would think of him now. His plan was to make his father proud, but maybe he had already forsaken that. 

Surely no father would be proud of a son that attempted regicide, treason, and was sentenced to prison. He could count the number of people who didn’t hate him, for some odd reason, on one hand. _Rapunzel,_ weirdly enough. _Ruddiger,_ but maybe he did hate the boy, Varian couldn’t know, he doesn’t speak raccoon. _Maybe dad,_ but who knew if Quirin would hate his imprisoner. And that was it-wait, no. _Hugo,_ the odd new guard that stuck by him. 

He was assigned to Varian, but made it weirdly obvious he didn’t hate the alchemist. Hugo had helped him in many situations, where no one else would or was going to. And Hugo didn’t know him. **_That’s why he doesn’t hate me._ ** Hugo didn’t know precisely what Varian had done. Probably. And here he was, almost caring for Varian. Thinking about that blonde brought weird feelings Varian hadn’t felt in a while to the surface. 

It was a welcome change from the animosity, sorrow, and other unhealthy emotions he often had, but it was still odd nonetheless. He wanted to learn more about Hugo, what made him tick. He wasn’t like any of the other guards, who would glare and tease Varian, borderline abusing their power they had above him to make him suffer just that little bit more. Maybe that's why Varian had started a meek protest of his own, not accepting the food they gave him. 

But there _were_ other reasons, like 1, the food wasn’t generally that _good_ , 2, he didn’t trust those guards (what if they poisoned it?), and 3, if they were trying to make Varian’s life hell, **_by the sun he would push back twice as hard._ **The guards didn’t like him, he didn’t like the guards. He also hadn’t been sleeping much, for similar reasons of mistrust but also the nightmares he was plagued with. 

It was a wheel of misfortune, would his dream be about jail and the torture he endures? Or how about encasing his father in amber? Ooh, what about what would’ve happened if he had actually **killed** someone during his rampage? Something about Rapunzel letting him fall to his death with no one to save him or help pick him back up if he survived? So Varian did the only logical thing to avoid those horrors, not sleeping! It was obviously the best choice and it wasn’t like he was unfamiliar with it.

~-~-~

Queen Arianna of Corona was not someone to be ignored. She was also someone that didn’t give up easily. If you told her no without a reason, she’d _make_ you give her a reason or otherwise you’d be saying yes. So when she found out that Varian wasn’t eating or sleeping or generally healthy, by the sun, she wasn’t taking no for an answer. She talked to her husband, saying how she would visit him and get him to start taking care of himself. 

Her husband didn’t quite believe her and didn’t want to risk her meeting with the boy. He was unpredictable and violent, a catastrophic combination. But she wouldn’t take no for an answer. She pressed on for days until her husband finally caved in. She needed to visit the boy, and she knew from some maternal instinct screaming at her from inside, he needed her to visit too.

~-~-~

Varian’s “protest” was going about as well as you would expect. The guards didn’t care and Varian was wildly unhealthy. Hugo had tried to coax him into eating or sleeping but to no avail. His attempts were always half-assed, as soon as Varian glared in his general direction, Hugo would look away ~~he never did see the small blush growing across Hugo’s face~~. That was until Hugo came into his cell again that morning, claiming he had another visitor. 

_Well aren’t I popular,_ he said to himself. He had braced his arms and back against the wall, preparing himself to stand, (which was a lot harder than it should have been) when Hugo had said that they were coming into his cell. Varian slowly sunk back down onto the floor, pondering who it could’ve been. And, for some god-knows-why reason, a familiar kind face was being escorted down by two guards. He knew this face of hers. 

One of pity and sorrow, all fake. She was probably here to scold Varian, maybe tell him that now that Rapunzel’s gone, they’ve decided he would be an excellent test dummy for new execution methods. _The Queen wasn’t like that._ His mind betrayed him constantly, but this was weird. The back of his mind telling him that he shouldn’t be guessing the worst, that she had a kind soul. But he knew all about keeping up acts and masks and by the sun, this one of kindness must have been good. 

She joined Hugo and Varian in his cell, slowly sitting down on the “bed” there, carefully laying and flattening out her dress. Her face was neutral, and neither boys could piece together why she was here and what she was plotting.

Hugo chose to stand near the entrance of the cell, still on the inside, but eager to see what would happen.

“Varian,” The Queen began. “I’ve heard news that you haven’t been caring for yourself as much as you can this past week.” 

Varian looked up, intending to glare at her, but his attempt failed as The Queen looked down on him sitting on the floor. “Why do you care?” He muttered out.

“I could ask you the same thing. You’re so intent on finding out why we care, it seems that you want us to care, don’t you?” The Queen said, shifting her previous glances towards Hugo to Varian now. _Wrong choice of words._ Hugo thought to himself, bracing for the storm about to come.

“...what?” Varian growled, his voice trembling slightly. “I only _ask_ because no one gave a shit about me before, so why does EVERYONE THAT HURT ME SEEM TO CARE NOW?!” He screamed, staying completely still. It was unnerving.

“I-we all made mistakes. We didn’t show you enough that we did care, and now we’re paying the price.” She said peacefully, almost ignoring the boy’s previous blow-up.

“Oh, **_you’re_ **paying the price? What’s that? Your reputation? ‘Cause everyone already hated me, they like you even more now.” He grumbled out, his frustration leaking through every word.

“Your trust. You put your and your father’s life in our hands and we tossed them aside. You trusted us, and we barely acknowledged that. And Varian,” she said, reaching a hand out towards Varian. He flinched away, and The Queen withdrew her hand.

She looked down, saying, “I’m sorry. We all are. You trusted us and we betrayed you.”

Tears started to prick at the corner of Varian’s eyes. Hugo just watched the scene of a boy with no parents being comforted by a mother who had lost her only child.

“I just want to know one thing.” She asked, and Varian looked up. “Why did you do it? You wanted to free your father, but,” She paused, thinking her words over carefully. “Was there anything else?”

Silence. It was deadly, to everyone in the cell. The Queen prayed that she hadn’t pushed too far. Hugo prayed he wouldn’t have to drag Varian off of The Queen. Varian was just thinking.

“...I needed to make him proud.” He finally said, giving in to the tears, letting them roll down his face. “I thought I could...for once in my life...do something right. A-anything. Make him know that I could do it. I wasn’t a failure. B-but look where I am now.” He chuckled lightly. “He’ll never be proud of me. His only child, a failure of a son, in prison for **_so_ ** many different things.” He started to laugh. Hugo and The Queen both tensed.

“How s-stupid is that?” He said, his tears getting in the way of his voice. “H-how stupid a-am I?” He said quietly. The Queen was silent.

“I think I can start to understand now.” The Queen said, the compassion from her voice making the room seem just that little bit warmer. “Why you did the things you did.” She chuckled. “I know you probably hate him, but it’s honestly similar to The King. When we lost Rapunzel, he went a bit…” She gently tapped her chin, looking for the most polite way to phrase that we went crazy. “...unhinged.”

Varian was already glaring at her as if being compared to The King was a fate worse than what he was already in for. _Maybe it is._ Hugo thought to himself as he stood, a bystander at this moment between The Queen and Varian.

~~_You don’t belong here._ ~~ _Their voices echoed in his head, lines that he had heard all his life._ ~~_You’re just pretending, remember?_ ~~ _The first time he had to learn Don’s rule of “don’t get attached”._ _Y ~~ou know where you came from, what I could do. So~~ _ ~~**_don’t_ ** _fuck this up._ ~~ _The last thing she said to him before he left._ ~~_Everything in this world is fake, kid._ ~~ _The words he grew up hearing. He bet Varian’s life was better. Maybe. At the least, they could be two fuck-ups that didn’t belong anywhere together._ ~~_But he belonged here, not in jail, but in Corona._ ~~

“Grief can do unspeakable things to people, I’ve experienced it first hand and seen it in action. It takes your heart and twists it up into dangerous knots, takes your mind, and deludes it with corrupt thoughts that you’re convinced might make you feel better. But it doesn’t. It won’t.” The Queen said, bowing her head low, hiding her face, her true emotions. Varian looked up at her, in a new light he’d never seen before. A broken one.

“I-we were heartbroken. Our minds supplied us with wicked thoughts, but we didn’t give in, because we knew we still had something for us.” She looked up, reaching a hand out to pull Varian out of his confused daze. He took it. 

“We had people waiting for us, people that trusted us, and people that we trusted.” She took his hand in hers, looking at him. Not with pity or sorrow, but with something Varian hadn’t thought he’d seen in a while. _Understanding._ “We didn’t give that to you. You didn’t have that, and that is purely our fault.” They both started to tear up. 

Varian stuttered for a while, trying to find it in his heart to protest The Queen, but he couldn’t find it. _He was so tired. Of everything. Being misheard, not understood, being sad, being angry at the world, being hostile towards everything in sight. He just wanted to be done._

“So please,” she said, her hand slowly and gently starting to meet his face, “ _please,_ let me help. In any way I can. I understand what grief can do to you. I can’t even begin how hard it is to deal with when you have no one there. So please,” he leaned into her gentle hands, a mothering gesture he hadn’t felt in years. “Let me help.”

It was so quiet, barely audible, but Hugo and The Queen could both hear the quiet tear-filled, “Okay,” from the boy. The Queen moved to the floor, settling down next to the ravenette, leaning in to hug him. For the first time in what must have been months, he accepted. He felt her warm embrace throughout all the darkest and coldest corners of his body, and he broke. He started sobbing, muttering out ‘I’m sorry’ time and time again.

~-~-~

Why did she forgive him? What had he done to deserve this? These questions lingered at the back of his mind but he was too focused on finally letting everything out. It was nice. 

They sat like that for a bit, The Queen gently comforting him as ~~most of~~ his walls broke down. It was a cathartic release of his tsunami of emotions he’d been holding back for months, with someone who cared about him (he had convinced himself for the time being) comforting him. He missed his mother. He missed his father. He wanted anything, anyone.

~-~-~

Hugo was far past uncomfortable now. He _definitely_ shouldn’t have been there. His brain nagged at him, half telling him to leave before he died of awkwardness and the other half repeating Don’s words to him almost every time he left for a mission; _“Don’t mess this up for me, boy.”_ He figured he’d rather feel awkward than ruin the mission at hand. He just blankly stared at the wall opposite to him, thinking about what he still had to do to get the fuck out.

~-~-~

Varian’s mind was at war, part desperate for any sort of affection, any sort of understanding, forgiveness. But the other half said he didn’t deserve it, therefore it wasn’t real. It’s all fake, all a show, like Rapunzel with her ‘kind’ act. He just decided to ignore both, choosing to not really feel emotions, but just do whatever made him feel the tiniest bit better, which in this case, was accepting The Queen, taking off his mask for a bit.

~-~-~

Arianna was ecstatic that she had gotten through to Varian. A grieving mother was the perfect candidate for a grieving son to feel better. Now all that was left was making sure he took care of himself. Then they could make more progress. But for now, both were content.

Once Varian had calmed down a bit, The Queen had told him that he needed to eat and sleep, take care of himself. The boy had just nodded, not really wanting to do anything after expending all his energy into his breakdown.

~-~-~

Hugo opened the cell, ready to usher The Queen until they were far from the deep pits of the dungeon. _Great, one-on-one time with The Queen,_ he had been telling himself, internally rolling his eyes. They started walking in silence until they were a bit aways from Varian’s cell.

“You care about him, don’t you?” She asked, her eyes still set forward.

“Wha-why?” He stuttered out, surprised at The Queen’s bluntness.

“They way you acted at the hearing. I’ve also heard from some of the other guards that you’ve been a little protective of him.” She said, looking up at him. Her bright green eyes met his, and he lost all words.

“I-I just-i-it’s my job.” He muttered out, his cheeks gaining a light pink hue to them.

The Queen just snickered. “It’s okay to say that you care about him,” She said, then took notice of Hugo’s blush. “Or like him.”

Hugo couldn’t stand her. He lightly quickened his pace. “I-I just feel bad for him. I-I get it.” He said, looking down. Really anywhere The Queen wasn’t looking.

“Don’t hide it from him. I think he might trust you too, and if he does, you could help him tremendously. Teach him how to trust again,” She said, elegantly. “I do hope you think about it.” She said, waving goodbye as she approached the entrance to the stairwell to the actual castle.

~-~-~

All the alarms that have ever existed were all going off at once in Hugo’s head. _Did he like Varian? Shit. Is it really that obvious? Shit. They don’t know what I’m up to. Good? Varian trusts me._ **_Shit._ ** The Queen’s words echoed in his head. _“Teach him how to trust again.” “I think he might trust you too.” “You_ **_care_ ** _about him, don’t you?”_ His head swam, too many people saying such different things. _“Don’t_ **_ever_ ** _get attached.” “I don’t think I need to remind you why you’re doing this, correct?” “You’ve seen what happens when people question me, right child?”_

Don’s voice gave him chills down his spine, even if it was just in his head. There were too many thoughts, all at once. He managed to push them aside while he found Varian’s cell again. He found the ravenette lying in the prison bed, fast asleep. _He was cute._ But then he remembered what his job was.


	7. Self ish/less

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varian needs to escape, but his mind isn't working the best right now. On the other hand, Hugo's mind is working too much, panicking with only one week left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to have to start uploading once every 2 weeks with school and stuff (T_T) Very sorry, but we're getting to the good stuff!  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, panic attack-ish, nightmare, mild choking, falling/pushed from high up, (not much but mild) talk of starvation, the sickies, & bad dad vibes(tm)*also everything here is mild, only mentioned once or twice*

Varian was stubborn. He _would_ finish that little bit of the project that’s left whether you like it or not. He’d often forget to eat lunch, but who doesn’t from time to time? ...Okay maybe, _maybe_ he got a little too involved and would forget to eat breakfast too. But he would eat dinner! ...Usually! 

So it was safe to say that he (mostly his body) was used to going a bit without food. It wasn’t like he was actively trying to starve himself, he just got excited about his projects. But this situation was different. He had a plan.

It wasn’t the best for his health, but was anything right now good for his health? It was a simple escape plan.

Step 1 - Don’t eat a lot of the food they give you.

Step 2 - Act sick and get taken to the med bay.

Step 3 - During the period of guard switches, Varian busts out of a window or something and **runs.**

It was a surefire success!

~-~-~

Hugo could tell Varian was plotting something. _Probably some escape plan that will end up burning before it even starts._ He had that look in his eyes, like when he got to yell at The King. There was a lot less rage, but a lot more determination. He was going to try something, wasn’t he? And Hugo would have to stop him. Well, he didn’t _have_ to stop him, but he didn’t want Varian to willingly sign himself up for his sped-up death sentence. ~~_This is the one you pick?_ ~~

“What’cha plotting?” Hugo asked, running his fingers along the cell bars.

Varian just looked up and glared at him. “And what in the seven kingdoms would make you think that?” Varian asked, trying to cram as much sarcasm into his voice as possible.

Hugo wanted to roll his eyes but knew better. “I’m sure whatever escape plan you’re making in your head is 100% foolproof.” He said. “I’ve come up with enough plans to know one that’ll fail when I see one.” He finished, his fingers gently trailing off the bars.

“So you’ve been in jail before? And yet you’re a guard? I thought Corona was bad enough…” Varian said, his thoughts trailing off.

Hugo scoffed. “It’s all about second chances, right?”

“Hah, like I would know. They didn’t even give me a first chance.” Varian said, laughing to himself. He didn’t know why exactly he was talking to Hugo so much, but it just felt so natural. _So right._

“Oh? And what does that mean?” Hugo asked, excited to get answers out of Varian.

“Well, it’s safe to say that Corona isn’t too fond of alchemy. People apparently thought I was some evil wizard with the stuff I was doing and the fact that I didn’t get out much, heh.” He said. He thought to the first time he met Rapunzel, her asking him for help. _Look what happens when the tables turn, huh,_ **_Princess?_ **

Hugo laughed. “Really? A wizard? You’ve got to be joking.”

“I tell everyone I meet that asks me, I don’t _do_ magic.” The ravenette said with a laugh. It felt nice. To laugh. To enjoy a conversation that wasn’t about what he did.

“I’d doubt that if you live in Corona. This place is overflowing with weird shit.” Hugo said, recalling all the oddities of the kingdom.

Varian just chuckled, looking at his raccoon, and started to pet the creature. Ruddiger gave a soft purr, which warmed his heart a bit.

“A raccoon, huh? I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that he just stays there. Did he commit raccoon crimes? Does he belong in raccoon jail?” Hugo asked, all coherent thoughts leaving him.

Ruddiger seemed to glare up at him, and Varian fully laughed. It was nice for both for a while. Until Varian broke out into a coughing fit because of it. Varian desperately clutched onto the front of his shirt, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Hugo looked over, taking hold of bars with one hand, feeling around for the keys to the cell in the other.

“You okay, hairstripe?” Hugo asked.

Varian leaned forwards a bit, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Doesn’t really matter though, right?” He said, his anger of him being in jail in the first place getting the better of him.

“It does. Dying from a cold in jail would be the worst way to go out. I’ll make a request for the physician to come do his doctor-y check-up things.” Hugo said, concerned at how little the ravenette cared about himself.

Dammit. His plan was already failing. How could he be so stupid? Of course, they’d bring the doctor to him, it was easier. Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid-

“Hairstripe? Varian? You okay? You’ve just been staring at the ground.” Hugo said, a look of confusion upon his face.

“Yeah, yeah,” Varian said, trying to wave the concern away. “Just got lost in thought.”

“Whatever you say, sweetcheeks,” Hugo said, looking back towards the rest of the prisoners.

Varian felt his face warm up. _Sweetcheeks? What in the sun’s name did he mean by that?_ He must have been coming down with a fever or something. But he had no other symptoms of it. _Then why did his face get so warm -_ oh. He had felt this before. Only once or twice. When he had that _infatuation_ with Cassie. _Oh no._

This had been what he was feeling, wasn’t it? The calmness of when they talked, how he felt like he really could trust Hugo. _No way. He’s a guard. There’s no way. He’s just being sarcastic_ _~~and doesn’t realize how much it hurts~~. _ _No way._

~-~-~

Hugo just called Varian “sweetcheeks”, didn’t he? He definitely did. Why did he do that? ~~How did Varian feel about it?~~ Of all the times to not think through what he was saying, this had to have been the worst. How could this one alchemist take all of Hugo’s charisma out of his mouth and throw it out the window? 

~-~-~

The physician had checked up on Varian and confirmed that he had a bad cold and a mild fever, all of which would go away as long as he cared for himself. Which Hugo knew would be the hardest part.

“You’ll have to sleep eventually, you know that, right?” Hugo had asked him, it being a couple days after the physician had left. Varian was _generally_ eating, but not as much as he should’ve been. Same thing with sleeping, and if Hugo had to guess, it was probably because he didn’t trust the rest of the guards. Which, he wasn’t completely out of his mind to assume.

“Yeah, sure,” he said with a yawn. “I’ll sleep eventually. Just not right now.” He said, slumping over slightly while petting his raccoon.

“Is prison just _too_ comfortable for you?” Hugo asked, sarcastically.

“Well, if you’re _so interested_ , it’s cause I don’t trust the rest of the guards. They’ll do something while I sleep, I know it.” Varian said, his hold on Ruddiger’s fur tightening.

“Alright, alright, fair,” Hugo said, turning to the rest of the prison, but right afterward pivoting to facing Varian like he was before. “You said _the rest of the guards,_ right?” He asked.

“Well, I-I mean,” Varian stammered out, wide-eyed.

“You trust me?” Hugo asked, genuineness in his voice.

“More than everyone else here, I guess. You don’t despise me which is a start.” Varian whispered, a blush growing across his freckled-splattered cheeks.

“That’s sweet. Thanks, I guess,” Hugo said, that same warmth spreading across his face. “I mean I can’t say for sure about the other guards, but you’re safe to sleep and eat and stuff around me, I prom-” Hugo started, but never finished.

“Don’t. Don’t say that. It doesn’t mean anything.” Varian quickly said, the shift from sweet and shy to heartbroken unsettling.

“Oh-okay. I-I’m positive.” Hugo said instead.

Varian calmed down a little bit, but it was enough of a change and conformation that he finally fell asleep, his raccoon curled up beside him.

He looked so at peace, it was weird to think how quickly he jumped from happy-ish to almost vengeful to peaceful at the mercy of sleep. _Avoid the word promise,_ Hugo thought to himself.

~-~-~

One thing Varian didn’t tell anyone about was his nightmares. They were his own personal form of hell and torture, there only for him to wake up in a cold sweat, crying and screaming. That was one of the many reasons he didn’t like sleeping, along with his distrust of the guards. He had finally given in to sleep after a quick conversation with Hugo that seemed to confirm some things. Really only that Hugo was awkward around him. Or he was just weird with his wording around him. Whatever the case, it was odd.

Rapunzel stood on the ground before him. _When did she get here?_

“Varian.” She said sternly. Varian must have been lying or sitting down. _When did that happen?_ But he bolted upright at The Princess’s stern voice.

“Look who came back.” He quipped.

“It’s your fault. And you know it.” She said it. Varian’s face dropped. He never thought she’d be so blunt about it.

“T-that’s wrong! It’s your fault! You left me! _Abandoned_ me! **You broke your promise!** ” He screamed back. He sounded so childish to himself.

“Did I cause that snowstorm, _Varian_?” She asked menacingly, taking steps closer and closer to the boy.

“N-no, b-but you left me!” He started, walking backward to avoid her.

“Did I force the rocks to burst through Old Corona?” She asked, taking a few more steps closer.

“T-they were c-coming after y-you!” He yelled, taking a step back and stumbling. He never realized, but he was at the edge of a snowy mountain. _Why were they there?_ Rapunzel caught the front of his shirt before he could fall off.

“ **Did I trap your father in amber,** **_Varian_ ** **?** ” She grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt and gave them a tug towards her. He stumbled forward, being forced to look in her eyes. They were the same bright green as always.

“I-I…” He tried to form coherent words, but all that escaped his mouth was a harsh scream as Rapunzel pushed him off the cliff.

He was falling. **He was falling.** Why was he falling? He desperately tried to grab onto anything, but his back came into contact with the ground before he could do anything.

He couldn’t breathe. It was like the hearing again. He scrambled back up and saw he was in his old lab. _How did he get here?_ The amber was still there in the middle of the room, an ominous, towering monolith, but before he could get to it, the door opened. The Queen, Cassandra, and what seemed like all of Corona managed to spill into the lab, knocking down the walls, ready to attack.

“I thought we were friends, _Varian._ ” Cassandra took her sword and slashed at him.

“What did I ever do to you, _Varian?_ ” The Queen took his hands and sharply pulled, forcing him to tumble forwards.

“Traitor!”

“Danger!”

“Monster!”

“ _Varian_.” He had covered his ears to block out the villager’s insults but perked up when he heard crackling and his father’s voice. 

“Dad!” The amber was slowly cracking to pieces, setting his father free. He walked up to his father and hugged him.

“I-I’m so sorry, I-I should’ve listened to you, I-I…” He trailed off, the comforting feeling of his father’s embrace slowly turning sour as he felt the oxygen in his lungs being crushed out. In a hushed, grim voice, his dad explained.

“ **How could I ever be proud of a fuck up of a son like you?”**

~-~-~

It was maybe an hour since Varian had fallen asleep, and God-only-knows-when Hugo would collapse as well. He had generally tuned out, doing the same motion of going through his checklist of what he had to do before he could escape that hell-hole of a kingdom. Yet through his sea of thoughts, he heard small whimpers then desperate scratching. 

He looked over to see Varian curled up where he had fallen asleep, almost thrashing about, squeezing his chest tightly. A frantic Ruddiger was pawing and scratching at Varian’s face and hands, a desperate plea for the ravenette to wake up. _Nightmare._ Hugo looked over to Varian, where he was taking in quiet gasps of air between his whimpers. _Oh dear god, is he choking?_

Hugo had learned to automatically assume the worst and to just beg that he was wrong. But it seemed that this would be the worst-case scenario of Varian falling asleep. Hugo quickly grabbed at the cell keys, unlocking the cell and closing it behind him. Ruddiger had looked up and was pacing between the two boys, seemingly begging for Hugo to wake up his boy.

“Varian?” Hugo walked over and gently shook his shoulder.

“...no...please…” Varian muttered in between desperate breaths.

“Varian!” Hugo shook him more intensely.

Varian’s grip on his chest seemed to tighten.

“Varian, you’re just having a nightmare. Whatever you’re seeing isn’t real!” He said, aimlessly hoping that maybe Varian could hear him.

Varian turned to face Hugo’s voice a little bit more.

“Varian, it’s okay.” Hugo tried to pry Varian’s arms apart from his lungs. “I’m here.” He said more quietly.

Varian’s eyes shot open.

“H-hugo?” He said quietly, his arms relaxing, eyes watering, and breathing starting to even out.

“Yeah, yeah, you just had a bad nightmare, I’m guessing.” He said, not exactly processing that he still held Varian’s arms in his hands.

“I-I-I’m s-sorry.” He said, glancing away, the tears in his eyes growing larger; his breath uneven again.

“Hey, hey, what do you have to be sorry for? It’s okay.” He said, his grips remaining on the ravenette’s arms. Varian slowly started to sit up a bit more, and Hugo loosened his grips on his arms. 

Varian then shot up, taking Hugo by surprise as he pulled the blonde into an oddly positioned embrace, Varian’s face resting on Hugo’s chest, his tears bleeding into his shirt. Hugo dropped Varian’s arms suddenly, then felt them grab onto the sides of his shirt. He hesitantly placed his own hands on Varian’s back, trying to replicate any feeling of comfort for the boy. 

~-~-~

It was what Varian needed, someone that wasn’t screaming and killing him in his dream comforting him. It was a spur of the moment decision, to latch onto Hugo like a lifeline. ~~Is this what Hugo felt at the trial?~~ After a few moments of some awkward rubs against his back, Varian had no more tears left to cry. _I really should drink some more water_. His mind was running a thousand miles a minute like it usually was. 

“Feeling better?” Hugo asked, gently removing Varian from his shirt.

It was only then Varian actually processed what he had done and an intense blush grew across his cheeks.

“Y-yeah,” he sniffled. “I’m sorry.” He said, chuckling to himself.

This time it was Hugo’s turn to blush. His cute buck-toothed smile, the way he trusted Hugo, everything. “It’s alright, I mean I can tell it was intense. I’m here if you ever want to talk about it.” He said, gently standing.

“It’s just the usual of everyone I’ve ever hurt yelling at me, telling me how I did everything wrong. Even my dad joined in this time!” He said, jokingly. That was the basis of his dream, right? Everyone just confirming what he already knew. His father ‘killing’ him was new though. Probably from his conversation with The Queen. He shuddered.

“O-okay. Um, let me know if you need anything, yeah? You still need to be taking care of yourself, no matter what dream people say.” Hugo said, chuckling to himself.

Varian nodded and welcomed his raccoon, who had sat at the end of his cot, into his arms. _Maybe things could turn around._

~-~-~

Hugo had really fallen for this boy, hadn’t he? He barely knew anything about him but was ready to break him out of jail in a heartbeat. His whole nightmare thing had shaken up Hugo a little bit, seeing him practically choke himself in his sleep. 

He had started checking in on Varian more regularly after that, making sure he was eating and sleeping like the doctor had told Varian to do. It was a surprisingly difficult task, Hugo had learned. Apparently even before all this shit went down, Varian would never take care of himself well. _It must have been his dad making sure that he ate and slept, but...well._

Hugo laid in his bed after having just sent a letter updating Donella about progress. _Not much, the alchemist is starting to like me, he’ll_ ~~_hopefully_ ~~ _probably come with me. You’ll have to work on him some though, do your whole comforting a broken child thing that you somehow manage to do._ ~~_Like you did with me._ ~~

He recalled the past day’s events, learning more about the young alchemist.

_“If you don’t mind me asking, hairstripe,” He had said, trying to spark some form of a conversation between the two. “What’s your whole deal with promises?”_

_Varian had just blankly stared forward. “They don’t mean anything. It’s just more words, they don’t have actual meaning behind them. They’re flimsy. They tend to get…” He looked down, petting his raccoon. “Broken.”_

_Hugo looked at the boy. “So who broke their promises?” It was easy to tell that someone had triggered these emotions to the word “promise”._

_“Heh. The Princess. Said she’d help, but look where I am now.” He said, lifting his hands up to gesture to the cell. “She makes a lot of promises and only keeps the ones that end up helping her.”_

_“Yeah, I get it. I’ve had a lot of promises broken.” Hugo didn’t like to think about his past, but being in the dungeons, in or outside a cell, were bringing up bad memories._

_“So that’s why I don’t like promises. And The Princess.” He chuckled._

~-~-~

He was an interesting character, a kid with a lot of problems. But that never was an issue with Don, was it? He laid in bed, thinking about the next week, and what he had to do. He had gotten the gist of what Don had wanted. _Information._

But, what about him? What did he want? _Varian._ He needed the boy to come with him. He desperately wanted to get closer to the boy. Of course, he had broken the rule of “don’t get attached”, but did it count if he was taking the ravenette with him?

“You okay?” Varian had noticed the blond guard being very distracted the next day, not trying to coerce him in conversation or teasing him. “Hugo?” He said, a little more impatient.

“What? Oh. I-I’m fine. Wait, why are you asking me that if you’re the one in the cell?” _There he was._

“You weren’t making fun of me or anything else so I thought something was wrong.” Varian supplied, a little offended by Hugo’s previous comment. Even if he was in jail, it didn’t mean that he didn’t care at all.

“Aw, you really care about me, don’t you, hairstripe?” Hugo said, turning to face Varian and finally seeing his very drained expression.

“I just wish I had had someone to check in on me more, so why not be that person to my captor?” He said, slightly bitter.

“Just thinking. That’s it.” Hugo said, effectively closing off the conversation. “So you never had someone like that in your life?”

“Eh. I mean, as much as I love my dad, he never was the best with dealing with emotions. He hid away for like, 5 years after my mother died. He’s never really expressed his emotions well either. I guess there’s something I inherited from him, heh.” Varian said, thinking back to when his father would stay inside in his room for what seemed like days at a time, right after Ulla’s death.

“That sounds...rough,” Hugo said, not really confident in what to say.

“It’s fine, I mean, what am I supposed to do about it now?” The younger alchemist said, waking his raccoon with gentle pets.

“Heh, good luck with that, sweetcheeks.” Hugo said, turning to his thoughts once more.

~-~-~

One week. _One week._ He had one week to finish the job. The actual stuff Don wanted was easy enough, the guards being the big buffoons they are. But Hugo wanted Varian. He _needed_ Varian. For both their sakes, the ravenette wouldn’t last in prison by himself. 

One week to convince the boy to ditch everything and run away with him. To leave his entire life behind him so that he could follow some random blonde-haired boy to the ends of the Earth. _This is so selfish, isn’t it?_ Hugo thought to himself as he squashed his face into his bed. But after a second of thought, Hugo smiled to himself. Because after all, **_when did he say he wasn’t selfish?_ **


	8. (Hugo's) New Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How are the boys doing? Short answer? Not good. Long answer? Varian's coping with jail and Hugo's coping with being gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOHHHH BOY do I hate school! I've had like 0 motivation to do anything so that's why this chapter is a bit late and a bit short but we're reaching the climax and the parts I'm really excited for so hopefully I'll be getting less writer's block lmao  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, intrusive thoughts, just general crises and mental breakdowns  
> (This chapter is writen a bit weirdly but it's cause I tried to sort of simulate how I thought their thinking would be like)  
> *edit* I am a fool and forgot to find the name of the iron kingdom and left it as [iron kingdom] (´-`) so that’s gonna be fixed soon lmao also pls tell me if I’m wrong about the kingdom names :(

For someone in jail, Varian was doing okay. At least he seemed okay compared to some of the other prisoners. He was the youngest by far, and from the glimpses, he got, definitely not the strongest. There were many people, all adults that had various scars and such along with their faces and arms. They’d harass the guards (not that Varian was mad about it in the slightest) as they would walk by, but other than that they would generally stay put. The others would look at him with confused looks, probably wondering what someone as small and young as him could do to deserve solitary confinement (really just a cell by himself) and his own personal guard.

If anyone were to ask Varian what he thought about the blonde, he’d say nothing. But if he were thinking to himself, he’d say generally good things. Sure, he was annoying as hell, but if you looked past that factor of him, he was sweet. Probably because Hugo didn’t know him, but he was kind towards him. Varian could he even say he was beginning to trust him, which was terrifying. _Was he ready to trust again?_ Rapunzel had taken his trust and proceeded to rip it into tiny pieces, burn it, bury the ashes, and then stomp and dance on its grave. _But Hugo’s not Rapunzel._ His mind kept telling him this, but it was obvious. Of course, Hugo wasn’t Rapunzel, he’d feel bad if anyone else was Rapunzel besides herself. But would he be different from having Varian’s trust? 

His thoughts were too confusing, and there were too many of them for Varian’s comfort. Opposing thoughts battling to be the first to be heard. Thoughts about jail, his father, The Queen, Rapunzel, Hugo, and the ever-present plans for escape. But, now was as good a time as any to contemplate everything. As for jail, his thoughts were simple. _This can’t be legal._ There’s no way he, a 14-year-old ~~orphan~~ , should be in jail. At least he was alone for now, but good ol’ Freddie did say that he’d be moved to a cell with someone else once he was deemed “safe”. There was no way there was another kid his age in prison, so it’d have to be with some adult. The thought made Varian a bit uncomfortable, but that was a while away. ~~Hopefully.~~ His father. Oh boy, was that a topic to unpack. He had spent the past months blaming all his suffering on Rapunzel, but that wasn’t fully correct, was it? Sure, she made some mistakes, some pretty big ones as one of Varian’s only “friends” then, but that’s all it was.

So the rest was his fault. He was the one that ignored his father’s warnings, that bit off _way_ more than he could chew. It was a funny thing to experience, the gigantic wave of blaming your problems on someone else finally falling back on you. He would be stuck in jail, and his father would be stuck in a similar fate. It was ironic, wasn’t it? Both of them in their own prisons, their own personal hells. The Queen’s visit was an interesting thing, one that changed and broke him simultaneously. He didn’t like to think about how nice her embrace was, to hear her say that she understood him. He kidnapped her, for fuck’s sake! Why was she so adamant on being nice to him when their only interactions before were between a hostage and a villain? Because that’s what he had let himself become, wasn’t it? Just your average villain. He never thought that the type of person he idolized, heroes, would be the exact opposite of what he would become. 

Rapunzel was also an interesting topic. Weird to think about how she was on this amazing quest, following these mystical black rocks. _Those damn rocks._ To Rapunzel, they must have meant the start of a new chapter in her life. It was also a new chapter in Varian’s life, so to say, but in two completely opposite directions. While he would acknowledge it wasn’t _entirely_ her fault, that didn’t mean she wasn’t in the clear. ~~Had she apologized before she left? Varian didn’t remember.~~

Now Hugo, oh boy was he a different thing to occupy his mind. He was starting to trust Hugo, which was still terrifying but for some reason, it felt okay. He wasn’t completely opposed to it. It was odd. He didn’t quite know these feelings well, but he had recognized that he might’ve had the tiniest, little, itty-bitty crush on Hugo. His face grew a little warm as he processed this. Because of course, **of course,** Varian would develop a crush on his “personal guard” of all people. **Of course.**

Now escape. That was something that ran across his mind frequently. Probably every prisoner’s mind. He needed to go to his dad and save him. He needed a lab and equipment to run more tests. He needed to get out desperately. But of course, he’d get in so much more trouble. Add some escaping prison to his charges and he’s bound to say goodbye to his life. But if he could free his father, it would all be worth it. _Would his father want to live in the same world as Varian once he was free, though?_ That didn’t matter. Freeing Dad was the biggest priority. Anything else was secondary. Hugo had off-handedly mentioned starting fresh, which sounded amazing. ~~Would it be together?~~ But he would be abandoning his father. He’d be running away. Isn’t that what got him here in the first place? Everyone in power ran away until it caught up with them in the most brutal way possible or until someone else dealt with it first. That’s what The King did. _That’s what his father did._ But Varian didn’t run away.

He dealt with his problems head-on. Maybe making several large automatons in a few months wasn’t the best choice of “facing problems” but he wasn’t running away. Because Varian didn’t run away. He ran face-first into battle. He wasn’t a coward. ~~Was his father?~~ Like The King. As much as the regret and guilt was a constant reminder as to what he did and why it was bad, it was fun while it lasted. It was fun to be in control. After months of being practically mute, he was finally heard, loud and clear. It came with a large cost, but what didn’t? Everything comes with a cost. But if he could feel how he felt when he was in control, when he had power again? It was worth it. It would always be worth it. ~~_Where did_ **_that_ ** _come from?!_ ~~

_~-~-~_

He had less than a week. Less than a week to finish this “job”. The job aspect was fine, he had an understanding of the guard schedules, positions, and numbers everywhere in the castle. That bit was easy, it always was. What would be a bit more difficult would be his escape. He should probably go at night, to avoid being seen easier. Sometime before then, he’d have to talk to Varian. Somehow convince him to go back to Ingvarr with him, so they could be together. Did Varian want to be together? Hugo had already figured out he had a certain infatuation with the boy, but that was practically a given with how much time they spent together and how adorable Varian could be. All he wanted was to take the ravenette with him, but that would make the task at hand a bit more difficult. He’d have to break Varian out and somehow manage to get him travel-ready within minutes. _Varian would want to come with, right?_ Hugo knew it, but there was no way he’d think about it. _Varian was too good for him._ He was a fake, with everything he did. He only got by with the confidence he projected and his only goals were money and survival. Could one person change all that? Could one teen change his dreams? No, no way. He wasn’t about to change all his aspirations for some black-haired boy. ~~But he was going to, wasn’t he?~~

He shifted in the bed he was given, uncomfortable with everything. How long has it been since he last sent a letter to Donella? It was probably due time to write back to her, with the little time he had left. He quietly snuck out, making his way to that back room, dusty and forgotten.

_The alchemist has been opening up to me, I think he trusts me. I’ve got everything else I you need. Is it worth it to break Varian out of prison and bring him with? I’d love to, but is it okay?_

Should he tell Don about her rule being broken? She did say to gain his trust, what else could she expect?

_He’s very well “protected” and it might make things more difficult but ~~it’d be worth it~~ I’ll do it. _

This letter made no sense at all. But neither did his brain.

_I’ll be seeing you soon, with a certain new recruit._

He finished the letter before he could embarrass himself more and sent it to Don with her messenger bird. He sighed, trying to piece together his thoughts. He would take this boy for himself. 

**No.**

Varian would get a choice. He never got many choices in life. There was no need to push that onto someone else. ~~Varian would never want to, anyways.~~ Hugo didn’t know much about guilt, but if he stole the raven-haired boy away without his consent he’d surely be facing a lot of it. 

Okay. What was the plan?

He went back to pacing in the small room, thinking and plotting his next moves. He’d need to get all his shit together, first of all, then find Varian. It wouldn’t be hard, but the sneaking would be an extra difficulty. He’d go at night, right before the switch where he would finally get to sleep. He’d need to pack everything up before and take it with him, hide it somewhere in the dungeons. He’d have to either get the keys to Varian’s cell or a lockpick if Varian ~~hopefully~~ said yes, he’d just _adore_ running away with Hugo.

Ideally, he’d release Varian and the two would escape. He could rig some mild explosives with the alchemy supplies he’d taken with him somewhere not close to any exits or Varian’s cell. They’d then run away into the night until they got far enough away, camp there, and make it back to Donella by the next day. Maybe. He’d have to see how weak Varian was and how far he could travel. But! It was accomplishable! He had enough confidence for both of them to get through it. 

He finished his pacing and snuck back into his bed and patiently waited for the insomnia to settle in.

He could do this. Totally. Definitely. He wasn’t a mess.


	9. Panic, Chaos, & Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one more day, Hugo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Sorry this bad boy is a little late, I tried to do whumptober but I gave up after I missed like a week lmao  
> This is actually the last full chapter of this work! The next 2/3 (however you want to count it) are going to be like halfsies that line up, but that'll be explained more in chapter 10 ;)  
> But also because each chapter is going to be not full, I should be able to post 10 next week and thenn 11/12 the week after that :D  
> Love y'all! Hopw you enjoy! <3  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, mild sickies but not really, panic, bombs, explosions, lots of yelling/screaming

It was Varian's 1 month anniversary of being in prison. Yay. He was set to have an appointment with the royal physician to declare if he was “safe” enough to go into a cell with someone else. He hoped they’d change their minds about it all or something, but he’d just have to see what the doctor thought of him. 

~-~-~

Hugo was beyond stressed. He had about 2 days to convince this boy to go with him, and even more so worrying, he had 2 days to figure out how to trick and escape the entire royal guard. The actual Captain had returned during his 3rd week, and he was a lot smarter than the rest of the incompetent guards. Currently, he was walking Varian to the royal physician.

“They trust you more now, huh? You get to step outside the _wondrous_ land of your cell?” Hugo had always tried to make Varian laugh in times like this, to try to do anything to lighten the mood.

Varian scoffed. “They’ve just realized that they’re too good to be coming to me.” He said, trying to shrug while in cuffs, an oddly difficult task.

“Well, hey, they’ve known you for a month now, they’ve got to have lightened up a bit.” Hugo ushered.

“Pff, do you know the people you’re talking about? You drop something once in front of them, the next thing you know they don’t let you live it down for like 10 years.” Varian said, clearly agitated.

“Sounds fun.”

~-~-~

The physician had finished his once-over on Varian, quickly, checking for any sign of a cold, fever, or even the smallest bits of bruises. The ravenette had healed fairly quickly from his previous illness, but still had some bruising and cuts from a mixture of the harsh treatment in the prison and his fight from a month ago. The injuries he had gotten from that were minor, but the doctor had assured him they wouldn't be going away for a while. Being in a gigantic automaton as it’s slowly being ripped apart and stabbed from all corners wasn't exactly the best thing for your health.

The physician then had to do a bit of an “emotional” check-in, if you could call it even that. It was more of a just, “Are you still homicidal?” “Not that much” “Good enough!”

“Well, you’re physically fine, so you should be doing better and much happier soon. Or at least as happy as you can be in prison.” The doctor said with a shrug, ignoring Varian’s scowl. “Anyways, The King requested that once you are physically and emotionally well, that you be moved to a room with someone else. I don’t know who’d that be.”

“You have any idea when that would be?” Hugo asked. _That would surely fuck up my plans._

“You’ll have to ask the captain, but my guess would be a couple days.” The doctor said, starting to put his tools away. Varian, who was still shackled the entire time, stood from where he was instructed to sit to be next to Hugo. The blonde was his only sense of comfort here, a rock for him.

“Sounds _fun_ ,” Varian said, rocking on his heels awkwardly. The doctor glared at them for a second.

“That’s all I need from you, feel free to leave at any time, I suppose.”

~-~-~

The walk back to Varian’s cell was quiet. While Varian thought it a peaceful, comfortable silence, it only made Hugo’s anxiety skyrocket. In the silence, his brain seemed to move faster, if that was even possible.

Eventually, back at the cell, Hugo opened the barred door to let Varian in. Usually, he’d shut the door behind him, and maybe they’d talk from outside and inside the cell, sometimes they’d just be there, in silence. Varian had managed to get used to silence, the months being alone, with nothing but alchemy, a frozen father, and a raccoon. Speaking of that raccoon, Ruddiger was doing surprisingly well for being in prison. He obviously didn't have to be there, and Varian was so grateful the animal stayed with him. As soon as he got into the cell and sat down, Ruddiger had immediately curled up in his lap like a housecat, similarly purring.

“Have you ever thought of just running?” Hugo asked, breaking the quiet.

‘What do you mean? I mean I can’t really do much of anything as of right now, heh.” Varian replied, lifting his chains to make the _clang_ together.

“Like running away. Maybe not quite escaping prison,” _yet_ , he thought. “But, like, from life.” Hugo continued. “It-it sounds stupid. Nevermind.” _Stupid, stupid, stupid, why the hell is that something you casually ask-_

“Yeah. I thought about running away as soon as The Princess refused to help me. I mean, what more did I have?” Varian said, lamenting the event. “The only thing that kept me was that maybe, _maybe_ , I had a chance of freeing my father. But that turned into revenge, failed experiments, rage, sadness, and then boom! Jail.” He said, emphasizing the _boom_ with his hands as best as he could with being shackled.

“If you could get out of jail, would you run away? Take the things that matter, leave everything else behind, start new?” Hugo asked. _In too deep to back out now, I suppose._

“It depends. I doubt I'd survive by myself, heh.” He said, chuckling slightly. “But, I don’t know. I’d love to start fresh; I’m sure Corona won’t be too happy with me at all anymore. I’d have to leave Dad, but…” He started to trail off. “Maybe that’d be good.” He whispered. Hugo could tell, he had pushed too far. Varian was probably going to cry soon, and of course, it was Hugo’s fault, _he was so stupid_ -

“My dad and The King both ignored their problems. I don’t want to be like that...” Varian said, picking himself up after petting Ruddiger.

“But a break would be nice.” Hugo finished for him. It was something he thought often, as well.

“How long are you staying here, being a guard?” Varian dared to ask.

Hugo panicked a bit, checked around to make sure no one would hear, and spoke. “Between you and me? Only a day or 2 longer, heh.” He chuckled.

“Already had enough of this place?” Varian retorted. “Me too.”

Hugo just laughed. “So you do want to leave?”

“I just don’t want to leave Dad behind.” He answered, honestly.

Hugo made a noise, one Varian assumed to be one of assurance. 

~-~-~

Varian finally put together what Hugo was laying out in front of him, a little less than casually. Hugo was leaving and was willing to bring Varian with him. Maybe. **_He’ll leave once he finds out what you’re like._ ** Varian didn’t _have_ to tell him everything, right? If he was understanding what the blonde was saying, he could just use his help to escape and then ditch him once it became a problem. _Did he have the guts to do that, though?_ He didn’t like the idea of abandoning people, as he was unfortunately used to it. Even if he was the “villain”, he didn’t want to do that to Hugo. He didn’t deserve it. But did Varian want to leave? Of course, he wanted to leave jail, but was he ready to leave everything behind? He didn’t have much, but he still had his dad. Kind of. If he stayed, he’d be getting a new cellmate, and who knows how good that’d go? Each path seemed to lead somewhere bad, stay and suffer, or go and see what happens.

~-~-~

So Varian understood what he was saying, right? He had to have. Hugo had laid it out pretty obviously, a large breadcrumb trail that the rest of guards didn’t think to check for. He just had to trust that Varian understood everything. The ravenette had to be smart, but being book smart and street smart are two wildly different things. But there was no time to be fawning over Hairstripe, he had to get to work.

It was his last day there, in that dreaded happy-go-lucky kingdom. He was _finally_ leaving. He had sent a letter to Don the night before, after his weird talk with Varian. Simply put, he told Don that he’d be back soon, and if he wasn’t, get ready to bail him out or something. He knew he wouldn’t be caught, but there’s a fine line between confident and cocky, which Hugo can’t see all the time. 

Getting all his shit together wouldn’t be the problem, he could pretend he was reorganizing his small pile of belongings; some coins, alchemy solutions, some maybe-stolen metal, a few hidden daggers, and clothes. He had packed it all in his satchel, nothing taking up too much space in the oddly large bag. 

The hard part is making a bomb inside a heavily fortified castle and planting it inside said castle. He had the solutions ready and a crude container for them with some metal that he managed to snag from the broken down automatons. He had managed to make it so that he’d have about 5 minutes from when it was activated and when it would detonate. The trick would be placing it somewhere without suspicion. _This was going to be hard, wasn’t it?_

~-~-~

It wasn’t hard. Not in the slightest. _This goddamn kingdom is too trusting for its own good_ , he thought to himself as he didn’t even sneak past any of the maids or other guards. He just walked along, without a care in the world. He had his satchel on him with the needed ingredients, (and everything else he had, but that's beside the point) he just needed a good spot.

He walked down a stairwell he knew led to a part of the prison he didn’t know too well. It was the opposite end of the dungeons compared to where Varian was staying. He ignored jeers from some of the criminals that were scattered throughout the cells until he found the perfect cell. No one inside of it, no one too close to it, but open enough that the guards could dramatically rush in to figure out _who on Earth would do such a thing?!_ It was almost pitiful.

He set up the contraption and quickly started a watch he had pickpocketed from one of the townsfolk on one of the days he was off, where he’d go through town, look at what life was like for them. Short answer? It was sad. He had 5 minutes to get out, grab some keys to Varian’s cell, and then talk to Varian. It was all a little scary, the tasks adding up combined with about 5 minutes of calm before the storm? It’d be one hell of a storm.

He quickly jogged to the same stairwell he entered, again ignoring the questions coming from some of the prisoners. But as soon as he reached the stairs, he heard a conversation that made him stop.

“So why do we need to start a fight between each other?” One voice, feminine, said.

“So that you can get kicked out of the cell to make room for a new cellmate.” Another voice, more masculine, said.

“And how are you so sure about this kid 1, being this evil genius, and 2, going to _our_ cell?” The feminine voice said. _They’ve got to be talking about Varian. Who fucking else could it be?_

“Have you ever _heard_ of the shit he pulled? The kid managed to break into Corona’s secret vault by tricking the princess, then unleashed some monster in the courtyard to kidnap The fucking Queen. The Queen! He also managed to take down practically the entire army and the Royal Family! He’d be perfect for helping us!” The masculine voice said. _Yeah, that’s Varian, isn’t it?_

“Okay sure, the kid’s smart. Why the hell would the guards move a literal _child_ in with you?” The other voice asked.

“They’re fucking idiots. They don’t care about the kid. I heard they just had him alone cause they thought he would go insane and kill someone or something, but they’re going to move him in with someone else. The guards talk a little too loud.” The masculine voice said. _By the maker, what are they planning to do with him? Varian’s coming with me, whether he likes it or not._

Quickly pulling himself out of eavesdropping he looked at the watch. Only 4 minutes left now. He quickly bounded up the stairs and quickly started his walk over to the guards’ main quarters, where he could find the keys to Varian’s cell. 

~-~-~

3 minutes. 3 minutes to find the keys and run. Avoid everyone, find Varian’s cell, convince him to leave. Hugo knew he shouldn’t leave Varian behind, he couldn’t. The other inmates would find ways to abuse him. He needed to _go._ He needed-

“Hugo! Where are you going, all in a hurry?” _Great, Thing 1._

“Wait, shouldn’t you be on duty?” _And there’s Thing 2._

“Stan, you are absolutely correct. I was just on a break and was heading back to Varian’s cell, I just needed the keys.” Hugo said quickly, in an attempt to be polite.

“How is the kid, anyway?” Pete asked.

“Well, he’s a 14-year-old in jail. He’s doing just swell.” Hugo responded, ignoring the face Pete made. “But anyway, I really should be going now. It was just _lovely_ talking to you two.” He said, forcing a smile on his face.

Hugo quickly walked past them, onwards to his destination.

“What’s up with him?” 

Stan shrugged.

~-~-~

Barely even 2 goddamn minutes. It seemed everyone needed to have either a meaningful conversation he needed to hear or some bullshit excuse for coherent sentences to pass time. He had finally reached the guard quarters and had grabbed the keys to Varian’s cell. _Really, someone needs to make this harder._ He tossed the keys around in his hand, fidgeting with the thin pieces of metal as he heard it. A deafening **BOOM** . He then remembered that even one level above the prisons, he was still really close to the blast. _It isn’t_ **_that_ ** _big, right?_ Hugo asked himself as he glanced at the floor. There were small cracks, and the ground he was standing on violently shaking didn’t help his nerves. He almost fell, but caught himself on a table, by the door. 

Just as he had planned, guards shot up from where they were lounging around in the quarters and ran to find the source of the blast. He regained his composure and started running in the opposite direction of the rest of the guards, but no one took notice.

~-~-~

Almost all the guards in the palace ran to find The King and The Queen, and also the dungeons. The group that found The Royals had been assured they were completely fine and had seen first-hand just how furious The King was at this. Everyone in the castle had one name on their minds, _Varian._

The group that had run to the prisons was greeted with just as startled prisoners. They quickly found the source, a cell that had nothing in it except a small metal box, that had wedged itself in one of the cell walls. The Captain, who had run down to the prisons with the rest of the guards, began questioning the prisoners nearby if you could even call it questioning.

“WHAT HAPPENED HERE?” He screamed, grabbing and taking hold of the barred doors of one the cells closest.

“I-I don’t fucking know! The last person I saw come down here was a guard!” He shouted back, still frazzled by the explosion.

“What? Who?! Which guard?!” The Captain shouted again while the rest of the guards started to make their ways around the rest of the prison.

“I don’t know! Some blond kid!” The prisoner shouted.

The Captain looked around, quickly scanning for a certain “new recruit”.

“Do we know where that kid Hugo is? He’s supposed to be Varian’s guard! Find him!” He shouted, aggressively releasing the bars he was holding. A smaller group of guards nodded, saluted, and ran off.

~-~-~

_Oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit!_ Hugo’s mind was going miles a minute. He had run off in the opposite direction of all the guards and managed to run and sneak around without getting caught. He thought he was getting away with it until he heard a faint scream along the lines of “Find Hugo!” from The Captain himself. Which led to his current situation of running throughout the castle, searching for the opposing stairwell to the dungeons. Panting, he rounded yet another dead-ended hallway. He knew the place, but it didn’t help that he was panicking and that all the castle hallways looked the same.

_What led him to do this? He was once just another poor, abandoned kid on the streets, and now he was running throughout the Coronian castle, searching for the entrance to the dungeons to escape with a boy he liked. Donella’s number one rule was usually “don’t get attached”, but in this case, she kind of did want Hugo to get attached. Right? That’s what he told himself anyway. Don would probably be mad. He could honestly just ditch Don, run away with just Varian to somewhere far away. But he couldn’t do that to Don. She had done so much for him, and he owed his life to her. It wasn’t a fabulous life, but he’d never get that. Donella was the closest thing to a mom Hugo had, and he was the closest she had to a son. Neither would ever admit it, but it was a sort of don’t-ever-say-this-out-loud kind of agreement._

He skidded along another corner, peering down the hallway quickly. He kept on hearing loud, clunky footsteps behind him, probably from the guards. So he just kept on running. But luck must have been on his side as he recognized the stairwell at the end of the hallway.

“Look! There!” He heard a guard shout, faintly. He looked behind him to see a group of about 3 guards start running down the same hallway. He froze, like a deer in headlights, but quickly reached into and shuffled around in his bag until he fished out a couple more bombs he had prepared. He started running again and threw the bombs behind him. He heard them go off, and some very “manly” screams follow suit.

He sprinted down the staircase, his satchel bouncing along his hip, the keys jingling in his hand. He almost fell down the stairs, but nothing was going to stop him. He kept running, past the small cells, past the larger cells, past the inmates that taunted him. They’d shut up when they’d see a bunch of guards run through here. But he kept running.

After what seemed like ages, he finally got to the block of “solitary confinement” cells. In actuality, they were just cells that were small and blocked off from each other. Unfortunately for him, Varian’s was by the end of the block.

There was so much noise, too much noise. Everyone was screaming. The inmates were screaming, wanting to escape, and tease. Guards everywhere were screaming orders at each other, panicking. Everyone else in the castle was screaming, needing help, also panicking. His own voice in his head was too loud, telling him he wasn’t going to make it, Varian doesn’t like him, Varian wouldn’t come, he’d get caught, he’d get killed, he’d disappoint Don, he’d-

“...Hugo?”


	10. Of Explosions & Emotions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What matters more to Varian? Old promises or new hope?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise I actually love you all and don't want to torture you with cliffhangers! It doesn't look like it, but this is actually partly the last chapter. The next 3 chapters will (hopefully) all be going up next week Sunday, as the finale! Thank you all so much for your support during this whole adventure, it's been so much fun :D  
> -WARNINGS- swearing, general (gay) panic, and I think that's it!

Relaxing was something that Varian knew he needed to work on, so what better time to do it than in prison? It was difficult, as it was  _ prison _ , but what else did he have to do? He was sitting on his cot in the cell, gently petting Ruddiger, trying to shut off his mind. It was oddly peaceful, and a little too quiet. He put the raccoon down, to Ruddiger’s dismay, and looked towards the rest of the prison.  _ That’s it! Hugo isn’t here! _ _ Wait…did Hugo leave already? _ His question was answered by a thunderous  ** BOOM ** .  _ Nope, still here. _ He didn’t know much about Hugo and his relationship with pyrotechnics, but they seem like they’d be close. The ravenette was pulled out of his thoughts by the shaking. He fell to the floor and curled in on himself as the ground shook.  _ It’s fine, everything’s fine. _ He tried to keep repeating it to himself, but all he could think of is when tremors in Old Corona would hit, followed by more of those grim black rocks. They’d shoot up from the ground; ominous, immovable spires.  _ This isn’t Old Corona, they’re not here. _ But was being in prison any better?

His thoughts raced as his breath quickened, followed by Ruddiger desperately pawing at his hands, which were clawing at his hair and dripping along his face, trying to block out everything. There was so much noise,  _ too much noise,  _ **_ too many thoughts,  _ ** _ too much everything,  _ just too much. Everyone seemed to be screaming, the ground wasn’t stable or safe anymore, there was too much. But somehow, above all the screams, panic, and crummy thoughts, he could hear The Captain shouting something that sounded like  _ “What happened? Who?!” _ and finally, loud and clear,  _ “Find Hugo!” _ So that tricky bastard hadn’t left ~~him~~ yet. It was a nice sentiment, but nothing that could fix his panicked state. Even before his life went to shit, it was hard to pull Varian out of his panic attacks. The only person that could make him feel safe was his dad, with his large hugs providing an all-encompassing heat that made everything feel better. But his dad was gone, and no one was there to help him. Besides Ruddiger, but his little paws don’t prove to be quite as effective.

His brain delves deeper into a panic, freaking out at the smallest noises. It seems to pick up everything, including frantic footsteps that seem to be racing towards him. He hears pieces of what seem to be glass and metal bump into each other, the noise muffled by fabric. Then he sees the lamplight glint off a pair of large glasses, followed by a smaller glint in a pair of goggles that Varian knows are worn loosely around the neck.

“...Hugo?”

~-~-~

Varian.  _ Varian.  _ **_ Varian! _ ** Hugo couldn’t even tell if he was speaking out loud anymore, but he saw Varian clamber off the cell cot and slide over to the cell doors, kneeling behind them, reaching his hand out to grab at Hugo. 

He kept running, didn’t slow his pace. All other sounds started to fade as he stared at Varian. It was just him and Varian as he slid down on his knees, landing in front of the solid metal cage Varian was trapped in. He took Varian’s hand in his own, cradling it as if it was the thing keeping him alive.

“Varian, I-I…” He tried to talk, but nothing happened, his brain failing to form basic words or sentences.

“Hugo, what’s going on? Are you okay?” Varian asked, distressed.

“I-I...I had to g-go out with a bang.” He replied, chuckling. He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm his brain enough to the point where it would work.

_ It was just him. Just him and also Varian. There were no loud screams, no rubble, no cracks in the floor, no barred wall separating them. It was just them. _

“I’m going. A-and I want you to come with me. I have the keys to your cell right now, and I have somewhere we’d both go and stay at once we leave.” Hugo said with shaky breaths.

Varian gently intertwined his fingers in Hugo’s hand.  _ This was…something. If he left with Hugo, he’d escape everything that caused him pain, but who knew what would happen in the future? _

“W-why? Why do you want me?” Varian asked, tears threatening to spill as he recalled all the times someone had used him then threw him away.

“My boss - she takes care of me. She found me when I was pretty young and didn’t give up on me. She offered you a job with her if you come with me, but we have to leave and we’d have to leave pretty much everything behind us. We’d stay with her.” The blond said, his shaking hands slightly calmed by Varian's.

_ “We’d have to leave pretty much everything behind us.” _ _ That meant Dad. That was all he had left, the remains of his father. His father, who he encapsulated in impenetrable amber. His father, who lied to him, who didn’t face his problems. His father who lied to The King, who saved Varian from his fate. _

Emotions were flying fast through Varian’s head, almost painfully so. He loved his father and he wasn’t a coward that was about to leave everything. But what else could he do here? He had nothing. He’d have jail and a disappointed father ~~if he ever escaped~~. If he left, he’d be abandoning his dad, but then he could get better, learn more maybe. But he had already tried everything - what else was there? It wasn’t like Corona would ever forgive him either, The Queen being nice to him was just a fluke. Once Rapunzel got back, it’d probably all go to hell again, one way or another. Either her  _ “I can fix him!”  _ optimism or his rage getting the better of him again, with nothing stopping him, yet again. History would repeat itself.

“Hugo, I’m...I’m scared,” Varian admitted.

“Once we get out of here, everything will be fine. We’ll have a place to stay, a job to do, and each other. I really like you, Varian. You’re really interesting, and I’d love to learn more about you. We’re in this together. We’ll be safe, we’ll be free.” He said, making eye contact with Varian. He squeezed the younger’s hand.

“We’ll be together, I-”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cut-off is weird on purpose, but I won't spoil anything ;)  
> EXPLANATION AND VERY ESSENTIAL INFO WILL BE IN CHAPTER 11 - READ IT BEFORE MOVING ON!


End file.
